The Saunders Family | Blog

This Week

2012-01-20T11:27:00.000-06:00

1. I came to realize that my last post was a little insensitive. I didn't mean for it to sound that way, I promise! Hopefully the girl I was writing about won't see it since not many people even read my blog anymore, but I didn't want to take it down.

2. I was really grumpy last week.

3. I'm still grumpy this week.

4. I LOVE MY HUSBAND.

5. Shelby can eat an absurd amount of strawberries. It's great because she hasn't been eating a lot lately so I'm just grateful for anything that she will actually consume!

6. It's been a What the? week for me for some reason. Adele is only 23? What the? American Idol started again? What the? Life can be hard sometimes? What the? Realizing we switched Ben's crib to a toddler bed when he was 22 months old. Shelby is 21 months old. What the? People.com has news headlines in the order of Etta James Dies, Tom Hanks's Dog Dies. What the?

7. I laughed myself silly with this clip (it wouldn't let me embed it) from Big Bang Theory. It's probably my favorite episode ever (minus the bazinga ball pit episode). I love this show! And I want my hair to look like Kelly Cuoco's has been looking this season so I'm still growing it out.

8. Shelby has learned words like "remote," "buzz," "berry," and "donut" this week. Or "nonuts" as she likes to call them.

9. Ben is on day 5 with no pull-ups at night. I mean, come on, he's 5-1/2 and it's just time for him to be night trained! When he was 4 our pediatrician told us not to worry about it till he is a little older and we feel like now is the right time. He's been dry 2 out of the 5 days... So it's a work in progress.

10. I've been working on Shclby's nap schedule because 10-10:30 to lay her down was just too early. But waiting till after lunch meaning she'd only sleep for an hour (maybe). So we're at 11-11:15 when I lay her down and she usually sleeps till 1. She's still in there yelling so hopefully today will be one of the 2-hour days so I can shower in peace and watch a little American Idol. Yes, I still watch it. ;)

11. I have not looked forward to a weekend being here more than I have this week. I just need a break!

12. I got a super cute gray ruffle sweater at Sam's on clearance for $9. I love this stupid sweater! You can ask John how much 'cause I've probably worn it 3 out of 5 days this week. I'm going back today to buy a pink one if they still have them.

13. I've gotten into the really bad habit of leaving my computer open. This means I now have something wedged under my V key and Shelby ripped off the K key and now I can't get it to stick back down. It makes it really hard to type when you have to take a second to force the K down.

14. We started over reading the Book of Mormon this week using this chart I found on Pinterest. Ben loves coloring in the circles every night and I think it'll be great to keep us going.

15. You're now picturing me having to look at my keyboard and force that stupid K down every time you see a K huh?

16. Happy Weekend everybody!

2012 Resolution #1

2012-01-12T20:26:00.000-06:00

Today at play group I got to finally meet and talk to the new girl in our ward who a couple of friends of mine have been telling me is also a photographer. I'm always really insecure when it comes to my photography because I suffer from the same thing a lot of photographers do, comparison to other photographers, fear of not being successful, trying to manage your life and your job. It's hard. I have a lot of moments where I feel really confident and excited and proud, but they are always intermixed with the other. Needless to say, I wasn't excited to get to know her because I didn't want to feel threatened, or feel like I'd have competition with my base of amazing friends and clients in my ward whose pictures I take every year.

Thankfully, she's super nice. And, she's also a fairly new photographer, so after seeing her website I was slightly happy that she seems a little more green in the business and less crafted than I am. Is that horrible of me to say? That I was happy to discover she's not as good as me? Yeah, probably. But it does help with the ego.

After I looked through her blog for a while I decided to sit and look at my website and my blog because I have wanted to do some price structure updating, some logo tweaks, and better incorporate the themes on my blog and website to make them more cohesive. As I was sitting there looking at years of hard work, energy, time, time away from my kids, time away from my husband, I realized how grateful I was to have my little business. I haven't been extremely busy lately. I haven't shot nearly as much as in years past, but I got so emotional looking at all of the faces, the smiles, the laughs, the relationships, the babies and I was just proud. And grateful.

Having an art form, a craft that you love is like having another child. It's something that takes nurturing and I am not always perfect. It's a struggle to keep inspired, to keep clients, to manage the workflow. But I realized then how much I truly love what I do. I created this little baby of mine what seems like ages ago and it's slowly growing into the perfect little subculture to my own life. Another part of me that makes me, well, me. It sounds so silly, but I really needed the experience I had this morning: the rediscovery of my own photography. I'm hoping in the next few months and years I can keep it growing into something better, more refined, more welcoming. So that when a client sits down to look at my work like I did this morning, they will fall in love with it just like I have.

This is just one of my resolutions for 2012.

Etsy in Coral and Turquoise

2012-01-11T15:01:00.000-06:00

I've been perusing Etsy a few times looking at things by color. It's kind of fun to just search by a random color or color combo and see what comes up. This time I did coral and turquoise because that's the color combo I'd love to Shelby's room in (if we can ever get out of our condo!) So here are some of my favorites:

Polka Dot Pillow

Coral Chevron Pillow

Fandango Patchwork Baby Blanket

It's a Good Day Art Print

Pretty Things & Clever Words Print

Floor Cushion (gotta have a little gray with coral and teal!)

Toddler Crocheted Hat

Saunders 2011 Recap

2012-01-04T12:04:00.002-06:00

This year has been crazy, fun, busy, exhausting, inspiring, test-filled, and all around great. here are some recaps (I stole this idea from Jenny G).

Shelby:
- Turned 1 this year.
- Is now 20 months old.
- Learned how to walk around 14-months.
- Suddenly started talking around 18-months and doesn't stop.
- Learned how to color on walls. And doors. And chairs. And tables.
- Quickly learned you're not supposed to color on walls or doors or chairs or tables.
- Tightened her grip on John's heart strings and refuses to let go.
- Developed a close connection with many of her extended family members (Cecily, Nikki, Chrystal, Grandma, Ginny).
- Learned to walk then learned to dance and she just can't stop. Can't stop!
- Has refused to grow hair past her ears.
- Learned all her body parts and can say them all.
- Developed a huge affection for boy toys, baby dolls and "pincess" dolls (as she calls them).
- Started nursery at church and we are so grateful! It just makes church so much easier. Especially since we have 11am church!

Ben:
- Turned 5 this year in spectacular Star Wars birthday party style complete with Obi Wan Kenobi and defeating Darth Vader AND destroying the death star.
- Started Kindergarten this fall.
- Learned how to read.
- Can do simple math (addition), something he's learned on his own.
- Grows hair about 100x faster than his sister.
- Misses his mom and Shelby while he's at school. He's grown a little jealous of the attention Shelby gets at home by herself.
- Misses John more than anything when he works late days (which is pretty often).
- Has super human kid strength and can lift/carry/flip to the point where I'm considering putting him in a tumbling class. Probably just baseball in the fall, though.
- Spent his 6th Christmas away from home for the first time and almost discovered that Mom and Dad are Santa.
- Refuses to play Wii anymore because he says it's boring. I honestly don't mind.
- Learned that smothering his little sister is not the way to make her happy.
- He's made tons of friends at school and his teachers and the staff adore him. I'm so glad he is so well behaved at school because he lets it all out at home. It's tough being a good kid all the time!
- Learned about life and death when my Uncle Mitch passed away this year. It really concerned Ben he never knew Mitch (he had been sick for many years) and he still talks about Mitch being in heaven and not sick anymore and can't wait till Jesus comes so he can see Mitch again.
- He says really, really great prayers.
- Wants to read all the HP books this year (one of his goals for me and him).

Missy:
- Shot 6 weddings this year.
- Got to shoot the wedding of one of my past young women. It was so awesome to be able to do that and I hope I get to do more!
- Did a ton of family shoots this year. But I kept it light because I've wanted to slow down photography to keep up with all we wanted to do this year on our house.
- Laid tile, organized closets and the kitchen, painted and painted and painted, framed out our master bath mirror, put down baseboards, grouted, caulked, painted and painted, oh, and I painted some more.
- Kept myself sane half the year with 2 kids at home and happily sent Ben to school this fall.
- Spent most of the year with my young women only to get abruptly released a few months ago and am now the Relief Society Weekday Meeting Coordinator. It's been great being back in Relief Society but I MISS MY GIRLS!
- Has lost 15lbs and am working on more.
- Planned, budgeted and survived a family trip to Florida for Christmas. BEST. TRIP. EVER.
- Continued my love of Pinterest, Harry Potter, and photography.

John:
- Was promoted to Repair Manager at work. It came with lots of perks. He's so happy. Which makes me happy.
- Works and works and works. He works hard so I can stay home with the kids and I love him for it.
- Got to go pig hunting with his brother this year.
- Went golfing a few times with buddies at church.
- Grew a beard.
- Is still the Assistant Executive Secretary at church a calling he's had for years!
- Lost over 30 pounds.
- Developed a ganglion cyst on his wrist from his work and will have to have surgery in 2012. Nothing major though.
- Got to go to Donuts with Dad at school with Ben.
- Drove more on our road trip than I could have ever hoped and I have no idea how he stayed awake the entire time. He's just awesome.
- Misses our kids to death when he has to work so much. They adore him!
- Continues to shoot weddings and families (when he can) with me and I am so grateful to have him with me on shoots. It's so fun! He takes great pictures.

As a family:
- We've been reading the Book of Mormon.
- We got our home ready to put on the market (though we're still in the process of doing the final touches on that).
- Spent lots of Saturdays at Fuzzy's Tacos for lunch. Our favorite place!
- Watched lots and lots of movies together on Saturday afternoons. Especially Star Wars on Bluray and Harry Potter and watched Thor so many times I've lost track.
- Spent 5 days in Orlando, Florida for Christmas this year and had the greatest time. It was just completely awesome!

It was a really great year and we have some goals planned out or 2012 we are excited about as well. Here are a few pictures from our trip! (Oh, and Jalei and Regina. We ran into Marnie Cochran at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! What are the odds??)

Christmas Day at the Magic Kingdom

Soooo many people. Nothing like Hogsmeade in the middle of the day, though!

Day 2, Disney Hollywood Studios

Ben doing Jedi Training Academy. Awesome. And free!

Okay, not technically free because we bought the tshirt.

Days 3 and 4 at Universal (specifically Wizarding World of Harry Potter). My new favorite place! This was how crowded it is at 8:30am!

Breakfast at the Three Broomsticks

Jurassic Park area at Universal (we spent most of our time in WWoHP though)

Don't you just love this place?

The Sorting Hat! I'm such a dork!

My favorite pic of the entire trip. It's just magical. I know, I'm a dork and I'm proud of it!

Frozen Butter Beer. It's so good!

We had THE BEST time! And we want to go back every year if we can. Something we're adding to our 2012 goals. :)

The Magic Diet

2011-12-08T18:17:00.002-06:00

So you might notice that I rarely post pictures of myself. I haven't been at the weight I've wanted to be for a couple of years. I know a lot of you can relate to that and doing something about it isn't exactly easy. Life is busy, I have no time to work out, we eat out a lot, I have a habit of finishing what Shelby doesn't eat, I LOVE bread and sugar, I hate running, I love Diet Coke. The reasons as to why I haven't gotten back to "fighting weight" go on and on. But with our vacation looming on the horizon and the fact that I'm going to have to be in pictures with my kids while we are on vacation has given me a complex.

I tried doing Jillian for about a week then got to the point where it was really hurting my knees and I was so tired all day long. And it makes me so hungry! Then I thought I'd just diet and start walking again, but it's way too cold in the morning to take Shelby to the park.

A few months ago (maybe a year ago?) I heard about a diet called the Dukan Diet. I honestly can't even remember where I heard about it but I bought the book, read the first few chapters and decided to try it. What could it hurt right? I mean, in the first week phase of the diet (The Attack Phase) he promises you'll lose 5 pounds!

After one week I had lost 8 pounds. I'm not kidding!

This diet is a protein based diet similar to Atkins or South Beach, but in a much more realistic way. You eat pure protein in the first 7 days. You're limited to lean meats, eggs, and fat free dairy products. No carbs, no sugar, not even fruits or vegetables. BUT you can have diet soda! YAY! It basically drastically cuts your fat content forcing your body to burn fat and keeps away the sugar and carbs that your body hangs on to for so long. It makes sense, but he explains it way better in the book.

Unfortunately for me and my love of bread and sugar, I ended up losing a total of about 12 pounds after going into Phase 2 of the diet and completely stopped and gained most of it back. Awesome, right? Now after a few months of not being able to lose that weight again I decided to start Dukan again and REALLY do the full program as much as I can this time. I did not think it would be as effective as the first time around in the first phase but I was wrong!

I started on Monday and as of this morning I have already lost 8.2 pounds! I'd give you my starting and current weight but then I'd have to kill you. But I promise you, I am most definitely not kidding. It hasn't been as hard in the first week this week because I've been so busy and snacking has been more of an after thought. But I'm determined, now, to keep it going.

I'm posting all of this because if there's anyone out there who wants to try something new that will give you that first burst of weight loss that really helps motivate you then I promise you won't be disappointed. You have to buy the book. You have to do exactly what he says, especially about making sure you drink enough water and take multi-vitamins. I've looked up so many different websites of people who have done it and have had a ton of success with it. Most people lost 5+ pounds in the Attack Phase. Some people lost no weight at all the first week, but then lost once they kept up with it. It's crazy, but so effective! I sound like an infomercial, probably, but I promise you I'm being completely honest. You can even ask John because he watched me weigh myself this morning!

You can find the info here. And you can order the book on Amazon. I just downloaded it on my phone and it's great to have it with me if I'm at the store and can't remember what I can and can't have.

If you try it please let me know! I will try and post updates if and when I have time!

Benjerbread Man

2011-12-01T21:21:00.000-06:00

This is totally random, but I'm not big at crafting at home. Shelby is a terror with a crayon in her hand and I frankly don't want to deal with that sometimes! Terrible, right? Well, Ben LOVES to do anything that includes gluing, cutting, coloring. So when he came home from school with a roll of brown butcher paper and a note to draw and decorate a life size gingerbread man of himself, I did what any mom would do: I put Shelby to bed early. Then I let Ben stay up a little bit so we could work on his gingerbread man (even though it's not due till Monday I knew I'd forget). To say Ben had fun would be an understatement. And to say that I'm anal when it comes to doing these kinds of things would also be an understatement.

So here is what I'm calling his Benjerbread Man. Isn't it so cute?

Grateful Nov 30

2011-12-01T11:49:00.000-06:00

Okay last one. I should have done it last night but I was working on stuff for our next Relief Society Meeting (can I just call it Enrichment??) and got completely distracted. So this one probably won't be as meaningful as the last two, but hey, doing 30 of these wasn't exactly easy!

I'm grateful that it's now December! But I'm also freaking out that it's December! Time goes by so fast, doesn't it? It's insane! By the time December rolls around I'm thinking about Christmas, how many pictures I should have taken throughout the year and didn't, about how many sessions and weddings I have left to edit to meet my clients' deadlines, how I'm going to keep my house clean, and this year I'm so anxious to punch that "reserve" button for our vacation I haven't done it yet! It's crazy.

But I'm honestly just grateful to have all of these worries, things to look forward to at Christmas, to have my little family, to have another day to live, I love my life!

Grateful Nov 29

2011-11-30T21:02:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that it is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I am grateful for the daily tender mercies I receive. I'm grateful for my eternal family. I'm grateful for modern day prophets and apostles that lead and guide us. I'm grateful that I have a foundation to build the rest of my life on.

Grateful Nov 28

2011-11-30T09:43:00.001-06:00

I'm almost done!

I'm grateful for MY AWESOME HUSBAND! He works hard. He works long hours so I can stay home with our kids. He is patient with my craziness. He has Shelby wrapped around his little finger (and vice versa). He can make Ben laugh harder than anybody else. He is a strict disciplinarian and it shows in how well our kids behave (most of the time). He honors his priesthood. He supports me in everything that I do. He puts up with my huge, somewhat nosy family. He lets me drag him to photo shoots and weddings. He laughs at my attempts at being funny. He will admit when I am right (which doesn't happen very often). He can remember tiny little details about our life that I seem to forget. He can fix just about anything. He texts me that he loves me probably 10 times a day. He never forgets to kiss me goodbye in the morning. He loves me. I love him.

And he's pretty easy on the eyes. I love you John!

Grateful Nov 27

2011-11-28T10:52:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for the missionaries! Our North elders stopped by a couple of nights ago since they were in our complex meeting with a less active and Ben had the best time chatting with them on the porch (since John wasn't home). And we finally had a chance to feed the South elders yesterday which we haven't done in over a year and I forget how much I enjoy having the missionaries over. Especially when one of them was a HUGE Harry Potter fan! So of course we all talked HP the whole time. :) I can't wait till Ben gets to start going home teaching with John and then on splits with the Elders. I can wait for him to go in his own mission though...I'll enjoy him being little until that happens!

Grateful Nov 26

2011-11-26T10:05:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful that for the past 3 days in a row we've gotten to sleep in until 8:30! Ben has been waking up at about 7:15 and playing Legos at the kitchen table and Shelby has slept in till after 8! It's been so nice to sleep longer than usual, especially for John who is up before 6am every day!

I'm not grateful that John had to go in to work for a bit today, BUT we have an afternoon full of mini sessions and we're really excited about working with some new clients!

Grateful Nov 25

2011-11-26T10:01:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful that we are NOT Black Friday shoppers! John was tempted at about 8:30pm on Thanksgiving to go stand in line at Best Buy but we were both so tired that definitely did not happen! We needed sleep because we shot a wedding yesterday and needed to be on our A-game!

Grateful Nov 24

2011-11-26T10:00:00.000-06:00

I'm behind again! We had a great Thanksgiving this year. TONS of people in my mom's house, lots of good food, a win for the Cowboys. I'm grateful that when we all went around and said what we're thankful for Ben said he's thankful for his family! The kid LOVES his family and extended family, especially his cousins. And I'm grateful that Shelby has turned into a hugging machine at Grandma's house and loves to hug anyone and everyone, even Jonathan's sailor buddy that was here for Thanksgiving got a hug! It's so cute!

Grateful Nov 23

2011-11-23T09:28:00.002-06:00

I'm grateful for my little business! I started taking pictures in 2008 and things have grown more than I expected, but just the right amount for my busy life. It's given us the extra financial boost we need at what seems like the perfect moments. Most of my sessions and weddings come through referrals or Google searches and we couldn't be more thrilled with the clients we have! I love taking pictures. It really brings me a lot of happiness. I've been really careful not to overextend myself or book to many clients that I can't handle and things always seem to work out perfectly. So to anyone out there reading this who has given me the great priviledge of photographing your family, THANK YOU!

P.S. I have a couple of openings for mini sessions I am doing this Saturday the 26th in downtown Ft Worth. $100 for a 20 minute session and 7-10 digital files! Email me or leave me a comment for more information!

Grateful Nov 22

2011-11-22T14:16:00.002-06:00

I'm grateful for cooler weather. It was pretty ridiculous that we were wearing flip flops and John had on shorts when we went out to dinner on Saturday for my birthday! Even though there's been a lot of rain, I'm happy the weather is finally starting to get a little cooler! Who knows if it will stay, but it never really feels like Christmas is around the corner when it's 70 degrees outside!

Grateful Nov 21

2011-11-21T23:59:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for my mom! Today is her birthday. Yesterday we celebrated our birthdays since they're so close together. I got to pick what we had for dinner (roast beef, duh) and she got to pick dessert (yellow cake with buttercream frosting). It was all made from scratch and it was delicious!

My mom is probably one of the most interesting, complicated, charitable, loving, feisty, no-nonsense, compassionate, and generous people you will ever meet. She's been the greatest example of service to her family, to her friends, her church, and her community. There is nothing she won't do for you or your neighbor. There's nothing she won't do for her family. We all love her, all of our kids adore her, and she is the matriarch of a family she raised to be righteous, independent people. She truly loves and cherishes her posterity.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Grateful Nov 20

2011-11-21T23:55:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for NEW CARPET! Man, it's amazing how much of a difference it's made in our house. I mean, we knew it would be a huge change, but once we got all our stuff back in we were like WOW, that's a huge difference! Hopefully it will help our condo sell fast!

Grateful Nov 19

2011-11-21T23:54:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for another birthday! I love my simple, complicated, stressful and joyful little life. I'm grateful for every day I have with my family!

Grateful Nov 18

2011-11-18T10:15:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful that I wasn't one of those Twihards out till all hours of the morning to watch Breaking Dawn. I'll do some crazy things like midnight showings for Harry Potter and MAYBE The Avengers...but Twilight? I've been hearing it's awful or it was amazing. Either way, I'm glad I'm not a zombie today because of it!

Team Neville!

Grateful Nov 17

2011-11-18T10:14:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for Cars 2. My kids LOVE this movie and they watch it at least once a day. It's kept them occupied while I've been feverishly cleaning and packing up boxes and sweeping out from under beds. I still feel completely unprepared for all our stuff to get moved out and back in tomorrow, but I know it will all work out! And we have a realtor coming on Tuesday to do a market analysis on our condo. Eek!

Grateful Nov 16

2011-11-16T21:08:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for birthday lunches! A group of friends of mine in my ward celebrate all of our birthdays Pappasito's style! Even if it's not a birthday we find an excuse to go to lunch there. Their beef fajitas are THE BEST. It was such a treat today and these ladies are awesome. I was thrilled to get to spend my Ulta gift card afterwards since John and I decided we're not doing birthday presents for each other this year (so we can hopefully go on Christmas vacation). I got a new curling iron to replace the ridiculous one I've been using that I've had since high school!

P.S. And I'd be completely ungrateful if I didn't thank Chrystal for watching Shelby for me so I could go kid-free. You know I love you Chrystal, THANK YOU!

Grateful Nov 15

2011-11-15T11:48:00.000-06:00

Today I'm grateful that I'm not sitting in a doctor's office getting tested for strep like I was two weeks ago! I had feeling really groggy since Sunday and my throat was hurting pretty bad. By noon yesterday I had a 99 degree fever. Sunday night John shined a flashlight down my throat and there they were, those pesky white spots. Remember when I said I got sick the past two weekends we said we were going to try and get carpet (but thankfully neither weekend worked out?) Well, yeah, that would have been fate's cruel joke on me to make me sick AGAIN when we're getting carpet this weekend!

But I can gratefully say that I woke up this morning with only a slight irritation in my throat and no white spots to be seen! And so I've been able to spend my morning caulking, touch up painting, scrubbing baseboards and cleaning out my bedroom.

Grateful Nov 14

2011-11-15T11:36:00.001-06:00

I'm grateful for Ben's school. I know I say this a lot, but we cringe to think what school would have been like had the transfer not worked out. He LOVES school. He is so excited on Sunday nights because he knows he gets to go to school. Here are some fun things that his school does that we love. I know some of these are standard for a lot of schools and are nothing special, but hey, we're first time school parents so we think it's awesome:

• Hill U – 6-week long extracurricular courses taught on fun subjects like frisbee golf, cake decorating, Legos, etc. For $35 Ben got to stay an hour later every Tuesday for 6 weeks and play Legos and make new friends. This morning was the first Tuesday since the classes ended and he told me he was going to be sad after school because he'll be remembering how fun Legos was.

• Reading Buddies – Each Kindergartner is paired with a 3rd grader and once a week they get to read together. Ben LOVES his reading buddy!

• Highlander Bucks – Teachers, hall monitors, staff and the administrators all carry around little Highlander dollars and hand them out to kids who are doing good things or behaving when they're supposed to. Once you get to a certain number you get special privileges. Ben has like 25 of these and has already gotten to have 10 minutes of extra recess. I love incentives to help kids focus!

• Specials – I know all schools have specials. But I think Ben's school is different in some ways because Kindergartners get to do all of the ones some other schools don't allow. So every week Ben gets to go to Computers (his favorite), PE, Spanish, Art and Music.

• Peanuts and Popcorn – Every Thursday after school they sell popcorn and candy outside the school for 75cents. All of it goes to the PTA. Ben gets to do it if he hasn't gotten his binder signed all week. Okay so he's never had to have his binder signed so I guess we'll be eating lots of popcorn (and it's quite obvious if you look at the state of my car!)

• Parents Night Out – In December the PTA is doing a night where you bring your kids and for 4 hours you get to go out and do whatever you want! I can't remember how much it costs, but we might do it to celebrate our birthdays.

Anyway. We love this little school. Ben told me the other day that he doesn't want to move until May so he can go to Hill until May. We can't guarantee what will happen, but we're glad he loves school!

Grateful Nov 13

2011-11-14T20:33:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for Sundays. Life is hectic. It's crazy. It's busy. It's hard sometimes. It's frustrating. But Sundays are my perspective days. The day when you remember why you survive all the craziness. There is nothing better than sitting in the chapel feeling guilty for reprimanding your 5-year old for making too much noise, but realizing that you're just grateful to be there because you know it's where you're supposed to be. I love Sunday School. I love Relief Society. I forgot how much I missed Relief Society for the nearly 3 years I was in Young Women (but I'd still LOVE to be back with my girls!) I feel so much better about my week when we've been to church. Even if last Sunday we got stuck in Fielder Rd Baptist Church traffic (don't even get me started) and missed half the sacrament. Even though Ben insists on making tooting noises during Sacrament meeting. Even though I always forget to bring my scriptures and my phone us almost always dead. It just feels good to be there!

Grateful Nov 12

2011-11-14T20:28:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for the simple conveniences of modern life. My smart phone, tv, air conditioning, a car that runs, stores with everything you could ever want or need, the internet, DVR, modern medicine, digital cameras, the list goes on and on. They can be a severe distraction in many ways but having them available to me is a huge blessing!

Grateful Nov 11

2011-11-14T20:25:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for my dad. That sounds so trivial! How could I NOT be grateful for my dad?? He passed away over 10 years ago, but not a day goes by that I don't think of him and the influence he has had over me and so many other people. His life was such a testament of what are all striving for and I hope that he's looking down on us and are proud of what me and the rest of my siblings and mom have become. It would be bestowing him the greatest honor to live a happy and righteous life.

Grateful Nov 10

2011-11-11T14:55:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for Shelby. (Bet you didn't see that coming.) She is a spicy little spitfire and keeps me on my toes. She's funny, smart, strong-willed, defiant, cuddly, and the most lovable 18-month old. Most of the time, anyway! Her vocabulary is increasing every day. She says dog, mama, dada, bird, bread, i stuck, keys, uh oh, bapple (apple), and a bunch of other words I can't remember. She is your typical 18-month old because she thinks everything belongs to her. She wants her way all the time. She is defiant when I tell her no, especially if Ben wants something she has or has something she wants. She's a climber. She is most happy with a crayon in her hand and something to color on. She's colored on my fridge, mirror, kitchen table, screen on my front door, and a myriad of other places. She loves Cars 2 and Tangled and Bolt. She loves giving hugs and kisses and makes most cashiers extremely happy when she waves Bye and smiles at them. She still gets mistaken for a boy even though she's usually wearing pink or purple. She love love loves John. She loves her cousins, especially Chrystal and her aunt Nikki. She loves her grandma. She screams a lot when she's tired. Her favorite food is McDonald's cheeseburgers (it's quite funny watching her eat one). She loves cookie dough. It's been an interesting test of parenting having kids this age because Ben has a tendency to be in control and Shelby is too young to understand a lot of things so we try not to let her have her way out of keeping her from screaming or yelling. But it's pretty hard, especially at the end of a long day. But she is amazing. She still loves to cuddle when she's tired. She loves sitting on laps and coloring or reading. She is just a wonderful little girl and I can't wait to see what kind of kid she'll turn into in the years to come.

Grateful Nov 9

2011-11-11T14:41:00.001-06:00

Is it already Friday? Did I really miss two whole days?

I'm grateful for Ben. He's smart, charming, opinionated, social, frustrating, witty, and all around an awesome kid. He's doing really well in school. His writing is getting better and better. He can spell words I didn't think kindergartners even learned. He's easily frustrated by his sister but he's quick to apologize. He takes extremely long showers. He LOVES Legos and builds some really cool ships. The principal at his school calls him Hollywood because of his sunglasses he wears every day. He is instant friends with pretty much every kid he meets. He's very aware of when kids are misbehaving and it really bothers him. He always remembers prayer and scripture time and reads verses with us almost every night. He's averaging out in height so he's on the tall side of kids at school but he is definitely not the tallest. He annoys me all day with his tooting noises. He gets frustrated really easily when he can't do something or thinks he's not being listened to. His favorite thing to eat right now is chicken nugget sliders (I put three nuggets in a hot dog bun and tear them into 3 little sandwiches). He loves cookie dough. He is still quick to cry when he's in trouble then just wants a hug. He loves Halloween and dressing up. Next year he's going to be Anakin. He has the next two Halloweens planned out but I can't remember what they are. This year he was Jango Fett and he looked awesome! We just love this kid. He drives us crazy, makes us laugh hysterically, asks us a million questions, but we wouldn't trade him for the world. I'm so grateful he is the big brother of our family because he's going to be awesome at it.

Grateful Nov 8

2011-11-08T17:53:00.000-06:00

Today I'm grateful for Harry Potter! I love these books. And today I found some prequel that JK wrote for charity in 2008. It's just a short story, but I thought it was really interesting. It was a bit haphazardly written but still kind of cool! So of course I had to include it for you all to read. (Don't worry it was a free download on Goodreads, I'm sure it's perfectly okay for me to post it here.)

The Harry Potter Prequel, by JK Rowling

The speeding motorcycle took the sharp corner so fast in the darkness that both policemen in the pursuing car shouted `whoa!' Sergeant Fisher slammed his large foot on the brake, thinking that the boy who was riding pillion was sure to be flung under his wheels; however, the motorbike made the turn without unseating either of its riders, and with a wink of its red tail light, vanished up the narrow side street.

`We've got `em now!" cried PC Anderson excitedly. `That's a dead end!"

Leaning hard on the steering wheel and crashing his gears, Fisher scraped half the paint off the flank of the car as he forced it up the alleyway in pursuit.

There in the headlights sat their quarry, stationary at last after a quarter of an hour's chase. The two riders were trapped between a towering brick wall and the police car, which was now crashing towards them like some growling, luminous-eyed predator.

There was so little space between the car doors and the walls of the alley that Fisher and Anderson had difficulty extricating themselves from the vehicle. It injured their dignity to have to inch, crab-like, towards the miscreants. Fisher dragged his generous belly along the wall, tearing buttons off his shirt as he went, and finally snapping off the wing mirror with his backside.

`Get off the bike!' he bellowed at the smirking youths, who sat basking in the flashing blue light as though enjoying it.

They did as they were told. Finally pulling free from the broken wind mirror, Fisher glared at them. They seemed to be in their late teens. The one who had been driving had long black hair; his insolent good looks reminded Fisher unpleasantly of his daughter's guitar-playing, layabout boyfriend. The second boy also had black hair, though his was short and stuck up in all directions; he wore glasses and a broad grin. Both were dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.

`No helmets!' Fisher yelled, pointing from one uncovered head to the other. `Exceeding the speed limit by - by a considerable amount!' (In fact, the speed registered had been greater than Fisher was prepared to accept that any motorcycle could travel.) `Failing to stop for the police!'

`We'd have loved to stop for a chat,' said the boy in glasses, `only we were trying -'

`Don't get smart - you two are in a heap of trouble!' snarled Anderson. `Names!'

`Names?' repeated the long-haired driver. `Er - well, let's see. There's Wilberforce. Bathsheba. Elvendork.'

`And what's nice about that one is, you can use it for a boy or a girl,' said the boy in glasses.

`Oh, OUR names, did you mean?' asked the first, as Anderson spluttered with rage. `You should've said! This here is James Potter, and I'm Sirius Black!'

`Things'll be seriously black for you in a minute, you cheeky little -'

But neither James nor Sirius was paying attention. They were suddenly as alert as gundogs, staring past Fisher and Anderson, over the roof of the police car, at the dark mouth of the alley. Then, with identical fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets.

For the space of a heartbeat both policemen imagined guns gleaming at them, but a second later they saw that the motorcyclists had drawn nothing more than -

`Drumsticks?' jeered Anderson. `Right pair of jokers, aren't you? Right, we're arresting you on a charge of -'

But Anderson never got to name the charge. James and Sirius had shouted something incomprehensible, and the beams from the headlights had moved.

The policemen wheeled around, then staggered backwards. Three men were flying - actually FLYING - up the alley on broomsticks - and at the same moment, the police car was rearing up on its back wheels.

Fisher's knees bucked; he sat down hard; Anderson tripped over Fisher's legs and fell on top of him, as FLUMP - BANG - CRUNCH - they heard the men on brooms slam into the upended car and fall, apparently insensible, to the ground, while broken bits of broomstick clattered down around them.

The motorbike had roared into life again. His mouth hanging open, Fisher mustered the strength to look back at the two teenagers.

`Thanks very much!' called Sirius over the throb of the engine. `We owe you one!'

`Yeah, nice meeting you!' said James. `And don't forget: Elvendork! It's unisex!'

There was an earth-shattering crash, and Fisher and Anderson threw their arms around each other in fright; their car had just fallen back to the ground. Now it was the motorcycle's turn to rear. Before the policemen's disbelieving eyes, it took off into the air: James and Sirius zoomed away into the night sky, their tail light twinkling behind them like a vanishing ruby.

What did you think? Who do you think the guys in the alley were? Why were James and Sirius trying to go so fast on their bikes? So many questions!

Grateful Nov 7

2011-11-08T13:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the 7th and I have to say I was grateful yesterday that John got to come home a little early. It's the time of year where work slows down for him which is kind of bittersweet because we love having him home, but it also means less $$. But as we were all snuggled up on the couch watching Cars 2 before bedtime I was so grateful to be together with my little family!

Grateful Nov 6

2011-11-08T06:56:00.000-06:00

I have a few of these to post today, but I'll get caught up!

I'm grateful that my refrigerator is no longer in my living room! We'd been keeping it in there while we were tiling the kitchen and we finished tiling but have not gotten around to grouting. So the refrigerator stayed in the living room. Those of you who have been to my house can imagine how comical that sounds! I bit the bullet and grouted the area where the refrigerator goes last week so that our babysitter for the wedding we shot on Saturday didn't have to deal with the fridge in the living room. I still keep walking to the living room thinking the fridge is still there, though! I'm hoping to grout the rest today, but we'll see if that actually happens!

Grateful Nov 5

2011-11-07T07:25:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I was pretty grateful for weddings. Partly because we were shooting one that day, but also because I had been thinking about the couple whose wedding we shot. They aren't the typical couple that we've shot before and I was worried about how things would flow through the day and about how the final images would end up. Then I realized that these two people love each other enough to get married. That's a big deal! And they trusted ME enough to take pictures of their wedding, a day that the bride didn't think would even happen. See, they hired a wedding planner earlier in the year and that wedding planner ran of with all of the thousands of dollars he required in payment UP FRONT. When she was telling me these stories and how she was just grateful to have one vendor work out with no problems I was determined to make sure her wedding was wonderful, and thankfully it was! The venue was tough, the lighting conditions were tough but they had a great time, we had a great time, their wedding guests and family were warm and welcoming, our kids were safe tucked away in their beds at home, and everything worked out just like it should.

Grateful Nov 4

2011-11-04T12:53:00.000-05:00

Today I'm grateful for the Red Removal action from Florabella. Random, right? But I was finishing up editing a session this afternoon while Shelby takes a late nap and it was one of those sessions where it was cloudy then it was sunny then cloudy then sunny. I just could not get my white balance in check. Thankfully I have this little action that stripped all that horrible magenta out of the pictures for me so they look natural and pretty again!

Grateful Nov 3

2011-11-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

For some reason I'm finding this task much harder than I thought. It's not that I can't think of a gazillion things I'm grateful for, it's just so hard to pin down ONE thing and have a good reason or story about it. 'Cause I'm not going to just come on and say I'm grateful for soap without a good explanation. :)

So today I am grateful for 1/2 of 1/2. Yes I'm grateful for a store! I've been in kind of a funk and especially a wardrobe funk so I trudged over there on Tuesday for their half off sale. I found 4 awesome cardigans (you all know how much I love a good cardigan) one of them being the perfect cardigan to wear to the wedding we're shooting on Saturday! I was so excited. And I've been wearing my long comfy navy cardigan with pockets for the past two days. It's the little things, right? I know it's vain to find gratitude in monetary things, but who doesn't love a GREAT deal (less than $20 for all 4, two of them from Ann Taylor) and something that makes you feel good? I sure do!

Grateful Nov 2

2011-11-02T11:52:00.000-05:00

Okay so it's no big secret that Coldplay is my favorite band of all time. No question. I'm a super proud Coldplay fan no matter how insanely popular they've become. I've been a fan from the beginning! John and I saw them at Nokia Theater (tiny little Nokia Theater) in March '03 and Chris Martin kept forgetting the words. But it was no doubt the most amazing concert I have every been to. Coldplay just makes me happy.

So today I'm grateful for this song, Paradise. Partly because it's just awesome, and because it makes my kids SO HAPPY. I mean, if there's screaming in the back seat all I have to do is turn this song on and their dancing their little faces off and I LOVE IT. I'm sorry for the all caps I just LOVE THIS SONG!!

It's best with headphones on turned up really loud or in your car turned up loud so you can appreciate the bass line.

I'm sure my Coldplay hating sisters are going to think I'm insane on this one, but I don't care. I love this song!

Grateful Nov 1

2011-11-02T10:01:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of friends of mine on Facebook that are posting every day what they're thankful for and I thought about doing that, too, but I've been in a weird mood about Facebook lately for some reason so I thought I'd post it here! And maybe I'll write them on FB, too, who knows?

Today I'm grateful for antibiotics. I was down for days with tonsillitis and strep and I'm not gonna lie, it SUCKED. It was really frustrating because I got some crazy stomach virus a couple of weeks ago that took me way too long to get over. Both coincided with times when we were going to try to install carpet in our house to put it up for sale, but thankfully neither date worked out because I got sick both times. Crazy, huh? So while there's no antibiotic that will get rid of a stomach virus there is penicillin that will get rid of my crazy swollen sore throat and I'm so grateful!! Now, John is actually allergic to penicillin so I'm just grateful for antibiotics in general 'cause penicillin would probably kill him. Now I have to cross my fingers 'cause we have a definitive date of putting carpet in and it happens to be on MY BIRTHDAY so I better not get sick this time around!

Anyway. I'll post another one today to make up for the fact that it's actually Nov. 2. And yeah I totally predated this to post Nov 1. Ha. :) Come, join me and do this! I really need reminders on what I'm grateful for and I'd love to see what everyone else thinks.

Friday Randomness

2011-09-30T12:50:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad, bad blogger! Mostly this is for me anyway, to check back at my kids' milestones and things like that. Random stories I remember to post. So I should be better about documenting these things but I'm not! I'll get around to it some day. For now, here's some Friday randomness for you!

1. I was recently release from YW. I WAS SO SAD!! I love love love those girls. I will miss getting to spend time with them twice a week, but I will definitely keep tabs on them. My new calling is the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator (ie Enrichment Leader). I'm really excited about it, and sitting in Relief Society on Sundays again after almost 3 years was actually quite refreshing. We have wonderful RS teachers so I'm happy that I get to be in again.

2. On that note, we have ONE Sunday left before Shelby goes to nursery. Can you believe it? This weekend is conference, then the next Sunday is a regular church day, then the week after that she'll be 18 months! Time has flown by faster with her than I remember if going with Ben.

3. Ben is completely loving school. He recently got Student of the Week and I was so proud of him. His teacher picks one student every few weeks to get the title and there's a yard sign they get to take home (Ben was very annoyed by the fact that we don't have a yard). His teacher says he's always good, is really nice to all the kids in his class and is super helpful. Ben can be pretty moody sometimes and gets really emotional when he's upset so I'm really proud of him for keeping it together at school all day every day. He is exhausted by the end of the day so we try really hard to make sure things are pretty laid back and consistent in the evenings.

4. I'm pretty sure Shelby is going through a growth spurt because all of a sudden her shirts are too short and her capri pants look like bermuda shorts. Don't even ask me about Fall clothes because she has maybe 3 long sleeved shirts and ONE pair of pants. But come on it was 100 degrees yesterday! I have no excuse now because almost every shirt she had is now too small. Why do they get so big so fast?

5. Shelby is also getting in 4 new teeth which will make a total of 16! I don't even remember Ben having that many teeth when he was 18-months old. But MAN that tiny mouth of hers is completely full of teeth now and her canines are finally breaking the surface. They have been giving her grief for months!

6. Ben has become a great little reader. He reads things out of the BOM during scriptures at night that completely surprise me. Last night he read me a bed time story. He also has spelling tests every week and he can spell words like green, apple, blue. He's doing so good.

7. Shelby has slowed down a little with her speech, but I think it'll pick up again soon. She says dog(duh), bye bye (bu bu), bird (bur), ben (I can't even comprehend this but when I tell her it's time to go pick up Ben she runs over to a pic of him and does this weird grunting at it), dad (da), thank you (ta too). I think that's about it. No mama anymore. Only da. She is completely in love with John!

8. Me and Shelby have been going to the park in the morning to walk and for the most part she does great. I've gotten up to 4 miles at a time and it's a struggle with a kid her age in our little Chicco stroller to walk around that long, but I think she'll be a little better once we get a jogging stroller (so I can actually start jogging!) It's been fun and I can tell Ben gets a little jealous asking what mommy and Shelby do while he's at school. He really doesn't like shopping that much anymore so as long as he knows he didn't have to walk around Walmart for an hour he's usually okay.

9. We are not any closer to getting our house on the market than we were two months ago. We still have so much to do! Time just ticks on by! We will hopefully in the next month or two, but it's hard with everything getting so busy!

10. I cut my own bangs the other day. Not my smartest moment. Still need my friend to fix them for me!

11. Okay I really can't think of anything else to say. I'm sure I will think of something as soon as I publish but I will have to save that for another post!

Ben started school!

2011-09-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

Okay well most of you already know Ben started school and it's been awesome. We're so lucky that Ben has always been a great kid in social situations. He was the leader of the pack in Nursery at church, he LOVED going to the small preschool last year and has been wanting to go to school for so long I knew we wouldn't have a problem. It's only been a little over a week so I guess I can't guarantee that for the rest of the year!

His first day was great. I had everything packed up, Ben was so excited he was up at 6:15. We ate breakfast together, he showered and got dressed, I showered and got ready. I woke Shelby up at 7:20, got her dressed, snapped a few pics and we were on our way at about 7:35. It takes between 15-20 minutes to get to his school depending on which way we go and how many stop lights we hit. It's been about 17 minutes each time. When we got to school we parked, and walked in a little before 8. I did take a couple of pics of him on the Highlander bench and outside the school. We had to get him registered before he could go into class, but it only took a few minutes and he was like MOM. Can we go already?

His class is right outside the office directly inside the front doors which is good because it's easy for him to find (he walks in by himself now). His teacher is super sweet and I was eyeing the rest of the kids in his class just to see who he would be there with and they all seemed pretty normal. Ben got his scotty dog name tag, was given his place at his table to play with shapes while his teacher told me the dismissal policy and things like that. After a few minutes Ben is hollering at me going "Mom, are you going to leave already?" He's funny.

The thing I find the most interesting about having him in school is the stories he tells me about the other kids. He's always been kind of a tattle tale so he likes to say when kids get in trouble. He's also funny about the descriptions he has for the other kids. Like Addyson who is a little chubby (he says while pointing at his cheeks) and always cries for her mom. And Caden who takes away kids' toys. And Zack who got bit by another kid (whose name he couldn't remember). And how Rhianna and Destiny got their binders marked for being too loud in music class. And how Destiny got sent to the principal for not listening on Ben's 2nd day. Thankfully Ben's binder has been full of nothing but good stickers!

He loves school so much he even told me on his 2nd day that he wanted to stay there all the time. Awesome. I'm pretty sure he'll get over that as the weeks go on!

Shelby LOVES being home without Ben. He likes to pester her, and try and hug and kiss her all the time and it drives her crazy. Now she loves sitting in her chair in the living room and watching Curious George or sitting at the table with me while I work. I'm modifying her nap schedule and she's been taking one 3+ hr nap a day which is AWESOME. I hope that lasts a while because I'll be super sad when they get shorter and shorter! She's also hilarious when I tell her it's time to go pick up Ben she runs over to a picture of him on the bookshelf and screams Go! Go! Go! in an awkwardly husky voice. It's so bizarrely adorable.

Ben's school is great. The principal manages the pick-up/drop-off line (I have no idea if that's normal obviously). The PTA is super involved and organized. The office staff are so nice. The kids I've seen are really well behaved. They have a student council and the older kids take turns putting up and taking down the flag. When I left this morning it was a little later than normal because I'd gone in to take my PTA stuff so I was walking out with Shelby as they were doing the morning announcements that broadcast outside of the school. It's totally cool. And a group of kids comes in and leads the pledge and they sing My Country Tis of Thee. But like I said I have no idea if this is typical for an elementary school or not, but I still love it.

Here are a few pics of Ben's first day. He was NOT interested in me taking his picture because he was too excited to get to school!

Hallelujah!

2011-08-25T21:44:00.000-05:00

Since my last post was about Ben and Kindergarten I figure this post can be about Ben and Kindergarten, too. It may sound weird that I had such a spiritual experience today getting Ben into school, but it is not an insignificant lesson to me and has been a testimony building day.

It's been a little bit of a struggle working with the school system to get a transfer out of Ben's home campus. I posted a story about what happened when I went to that campus last year to qualify him for PreK and it's way too lengthy to write out again, but it sums up why we don't want him there. In a nutshell, we were reversely discriminated against and bullied while filling out paperwork. I was minding my own business and accused of being favored because I was white. Anyway, it was so bad I called John on our way home and told him I never wanted to step foot on that campus again, even though the counselor begged me to come back. (We didn't qualify by a very miniscule dollar amount and could have tried again but I was not going to do it). I've been a little terrified to even consider sending Ben there after that experience because I didn't want him to get stuck there. I mean, what if a transfer never came through? What if our condo doesn't sell for a year? I didn't wan tot take any chances.

But like I said in my previous post, work, life, whatever got in the way of us getting our house ready to sell. And August was looming like a horror movie villain. We did the right thing back in April by getting on the transfer list for the two schools we wanted. That was not panning out. I called 4 or 5 different other schools within a 15-minute driving radius and got us on the transfer list. Nothing open. I talked to a friend of mine about trading marketing design with a friend of hers who runs a Kindergarten certified preschool. All of our options were running out and I didn't feel good about any of them. Except registering him at Roquemore.

This was obviously the last thing in the world I wanted to do. I mean, I told myself a year ago I'd never go back, and now the only answer to the prayer after prayer after prayer we gave was to go there? Friends on Facebook reassured me he'd be fine. A good ward friend who's a retired AISD educator told me he'd be okay for a few months but to transfer if we got a call. So last night while we were laying in bed talking about it we decided that I'd go register Ben today and he would start school on Friday.

So that's what I did. It wasn't the most pleasant experience. There were a couple of other families doing the same thing, the secretary that approved everything was nowhere to be found, I was dealing with an overtired Shelby and an anxious Ben. The front desk person was a substitute who'd never done this kind of paperwork before, so it took over an hour to get him registered. I saw different classes filing through the halls and not one white kid. I'm all for ethnic diversity but there was that experience stuck in the back of my head of my fear of Ben getting discriminated against because he's white and he's smart. But it was done. My phone had died because I let Ben play Angry Birds while we were waiting, and we still had to go to Target and Office Depot to get the rest of his school supplies (how hard should it be to find folders with BRADS??), Shelby was screaming and I was just tired.

I charged my phone for a couple of minutes in the car but it died as soon as we got inside Target. After finding two of the 10 things I needed we got in the car and I sat and let it charge for a while. I had three voice mails. One from my friend Betsy asking if I was going to Primer (the private preschool) to Meet the Teacher, my other friend Noelle asking me why Betsy was saying we were going to Primer when I told her we were going to Roquemore, and lastly my friend Julie who had a friend on Facebook say that Hill Elementary was looking for transfers to fill empty Kindergarten spots. Wait, what?

Earlier this morning I was on AISD's website looking for school supply lists and came across the transfer page where they announced that a freeze was put on all AISD campuses and that no transfers were being considered until September 19th. I was like GREAT, Ben gets to go to the ghetto school for almost a month before we'd even know if he'd get into another school.... So at first I brushed off Julie's message because it could have been from the day before and Hill is one of two Exemplary elementary schools in all of Arlington. But as we pulled into the Office Depot parking lot I decided to call anyway.

It turns out that attendance was low at Hill this year and they were endanger of losing a Kindergarten teacher. The district gave them exclusive privilege of accepting transfers so they won't have to lose a teacher. I was completely shocked. I never even considered calling Hill before because I thought for certain they'd have transfers. It's a little farther than the schools we were looking at but it has awesome test scores, it actually has a PTA which Roquemore doesn't have. There was an up-to-date calendar on their website with all the current events. Which included all of the things we could have hope for Ben to have in a school experience.

A friend of mine said something on Facebook about how this was our first kid to be in school and that they're the experimental child and that by the time more of our kids are in school we get it figured out. For some reason I took this personally like I wasn't prepared or that I wasn't doing what was best or making too big of a deal and I should just go with the school he was in. But I didn't want to settle! We have prayed more times than I could ever count and our friends and family members have prayed because Ben is a great kid and he deserves to be in a good school environment where he can be nurtured and it was so important to me to find it. I needed to take a leap of faith and do what I thought Heavenly Father wanted us to do and go ahead and register him at his home school. All of this may sound so unimportant to some people, but it means a lot to us to set the standard early for our kid's education. I know it is no coincidence that Julie called me today and we were immediately told we could come in the morning to register him and he can go to school tomorrow.

It's just awesome. I was so excited I cried. Ben was elated because he could tell I was so happy and he knew that was a good thing. I called John and cried, I called my mom and didn't cry, then I called my friend Sharon and cried (because she has been one of the biggest champions of Ben getting into a good school and has helped me a ton figuring out what to do). So thank you for the prayers. Ben starts Kindergarten tomorrow and I could not be more happy about it.

Ben's Kindergarten Dilemma

2011-08-15T11:29:00.000-05:00

When we bought our condo almost 6 years ago we knew that we wouldn't want our kids to go to the elementary school who's boundaries we're in. Of course being naive as we were we assumed we would be out of our condo by then so it wouldn't matter.

Fast forward 6 years, two kids, job changes and losses, an extremely poor economy, an even worse housing market, and not our ideal financial situation and we're still here. We love our little condo, even though it's much to small for our family of 4. We live in an extremely safe gated community and have had a really comfortable time here (despite the walls starting to close in on us!) Our goal all year has been to get our house on the market and sold before Ben started Kindergarten. Unfortunately with John's late work hours, two kids, tons of work and not enough money to get it all done we are super close, but not quite there with getting our house listed.

So this leads me to Ben's Kindergarten dilemma. His home campus is 3% white and is academically unacceptable. There is no way he will step foot in that school, we have only heard awful things about it. Luckily we're on the transfer list for 2 schools, one of which is not accepting transfers and the other is a big possibility but there's no guarantee he will get it in AND we may not even know if he is in until after school starts! I'm now in the unfortunate position of possibly having to home school him until a spot opens up in another campus close to us that's not comparable to his home campus (there are maybe 2 other possibilities). It's unfortunate that I even have to say the word homeschool because I am NOT THAT mom whatsoever. The thought of homeschooling my kids had never ever been a possibility. But it might be a possibility, even if for just a few short weeks.

Cross your fingers, say a prayer, whatever that a spot will open up for him at a better school! We're pulling all the strings we know with all our connections and friends and are so lucky that people are putting in good words for us because they all love Ben and know he's a great kid.

So I'm hopefully going to be taking Ben to his very first day of Kindergarten next Monday, but if not, then hopefully soon after that! I'm ready for him to be in school and he is VERY ready to be in school. It's all he talks about besides Star Wars and he's going to do really great. I might even miss the kid. ;)

Frozen Kool-Aid

2011-08-03T16:38:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I came across this recipe by Pioneer Woman. Looks good, right? Well, yesterday afternoon Ben was grumpy (it's the heat, I swear, we're cooped up and grumpy a lot!) so I was trying to think of something fun we could do. So I pulled out a package of strawberry kool-aid and decided to make a kool-aid version of PW's recipe. I made the kool-aid almost to the package instructions, with a little more sugar and a little less water. The water I used was from the fridge, so it was ice cold and I could have even put less water than I did to make the slush more concentrated.

I poured it into a 9x13 glass pan just like PW and stuck it in the freezer. I checked it every 15 or 20 minutes to keep it from freezing too hard in the pan. PW has good recommendations on how to do that and it worked great. By the time we got home from the store around 7 it was a perfectly iced up pan of sweet goodness.

To make it even better, fill up a cup with it about halfway then pour soda on top. John added Mountain Dew to it and it was awesome. You could also use sprite or ginger ale as well and it would be great for a party. I made a punch kind of like this for a baby shower once and this was extremely similar tasting but with half the effort of the other punch! Next time I might add some pineapple juice into the kool aid or do it with some other fruit juices so it's not a cup full of sugar!

What we did last weekend

2011-07-18T10:17:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend John took a rare two days off, especially for summer time. He originally intended to take it off so that we could go to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and then we decided to do some things around the house that we've been needing time to do for a long time (so we can finally get our house on the market). While we didn't get to everything we originally planned we still got so much done and John got some much needed relaxation.

Friday before last my sisters Ginny and Melinda came up to help me finish our master bathroom. I'm going to take better pictures of them when we put our house on the market, but here's a glimpse of the framing we did around the mirror and new baseboards. We also replaced a couple of hollow tiles and tiled around where the toilet goes.

Then while John was home we got new countertops, a new kitchen sink and a new toilet for our bathroom. We had intended to tile the kitchen, too but there was a delay on the counter tops with the guy that was helping us install them but they're in and they look so good! Anything was better than the original beige counters we had. And we got a new stainless sink.

New pretty countertops!

This weekend reiterated the fact that my husband is freakishly strong! He carried the toilet we bought up our extremely steep flight of stairs all by himself! The guy installing our counters was like "You carried that up here without any help?" Then we went by his work to pick up some bags of sand to weigh the counters down while the glue was drying and he carried two 50lb bags of sand up the stairs at a time. I can't even pick up ONE bag of sand myself! It totally sucks we're doing all this work to sell our condo not for ourselves, but we really want to buy a new house so we are going to do what we need to sell it.

We also got to go see the midnight showing of Harry Potter!! Any of you who know me know how much we LOVE Harry Potter at our house. We've gone to the last two midnight showings and we were not going to miss this one! We decided to go to the double feature and see the last two movies back to back and that was probably the best idea ever. Partly because I love Part 1 and because we weren't subjected to standing in line for absurd amounts of time.

We were hesitant about going to see the double feature because Part 2 was supposed to be in 3D. But when we bought our tickets they told us neither was in 3D. So, of course when we got there we had 3D glasses laying on our seats which meant the show was going to be 3D. I was kind of bummed but it was okay because they were the coolest 3D glasses ever! Aren't we such dorks?

One of the best things about getting to go to see Harry Potter was my awesome sister Ginny. She decided to host "Cousin Camp" for all of the kids in the family who are potty trained. That included Ben so we left Shelby with my mom. But let me tell you, Ginny is super brave volunteering to take 9 kids ages 9 and under plus one baby from 1pm on Thursday till 6pm on Friday! And that means we go to see Harry Potter with some of our favorite people (Nikki, Randi, CJ, Chrystal, Gideon, Julie and Tenok). Now, the 2nd half of the movie was interrupted by the person 3 rows behind us who snored through the entire rest of the movie! We are definitely going to go see it again!

Have you seen this coolness?

2011-06-15T11:25:00.000-05:00

Any Blogger powered blog can be viewed in some crazy ways. Click here to test my blog this way and try it out on yours! You can add the url to the end of your blog address. Super cool, huh?

And yes, I totally left everything up on my screen shot 'cause I think it's interesting to see what other people's computer screens look like and what browser tabs they've got open, stuff like that. So there you go! A little glimpse.

Ben is FIVE!

2011-05-25T08:04:00.000-05:00

Okay so I can't write a post about Shelby turning 1 without recognizing that Ben turned 5 yesterday! 5 is an interesting age. It's awesome for many many reasons but also incredibly frustrating for just as many reasons. I'll include a list like I did for Shelby, highlighting both the good and the bad about our 5 year old!

1. Ben loves Star Wars. Especially Lego Star Wars. After he broke our tv a few months ago he hasn't been able to play Wii. Which means no Lego Star Wars video game. This has been pretty traumatic for him, but I have not backed down on the Wii privileges! We're dealing with a small tv in the living room and Ben will get his Wii privileges back Friday when he opens his presents from us (and gets a new Star Wars game).

2. Ben has been going to preschool at a friend's house this year. He's learned a lot. He's also learned how to add some numbers together but swears he didn't learn that at school. He reads fairly well and is as prepared for Kindergarten as you can probably get!

3. Ben starts KINDERGARTEN this Fall! A lot of people hold their boys back a year, and even though Ben is going to be one of the younger ones in his class we're not holding him back. Besides the fact that he's huge! He's definitely ready. He will probably be a little on the immature side, but we'll work with him on that.

4. His favorite thing to eat is peanut butter and (strawberry) jelly sandwiches and chocolate milk. He has this for lunch every single day!

5. He loves the Texas Rangers. He wears his Rangers hat we got him during the playoffs last year all the time.

6. He has really sensitive eyes and wears sunglasses all the time. I can't even tell you how many pairs of sunglasses we've bought and lost. Thankfully I found some at Dollar Tree and am going to stock up on a few pair to last us the rest of the summer!

7. He weighs 51 pounds and is 46" tall. He hasn't had a 5-year check up yet but that puts him over the 95th percentile for height and weight.

8. His obsession with Thomas the Train is definitely on the down turn. I'm kind of glad because I was getting kind of tired of watching Thomas movies and because I was ready for him to move on to more grown up toys. Like Star Wars and Legos. Now he spends all his time building Jedi Star fighters and I love it.

9. Ben is incredibly independent. He thinks he knows everything and even when he's told not to do something he'll say "it's okay Shelby likes it." Not the point!

10. He also thinks he's the boss of Shelby. Granted, he does great when I ask him to keep her entertained or to make sure she doesn't fall asleep in the car, but then he likes to take his own liberties and try to put Shelby on his bed, or try to run with her around the house. And when I tell him to stop he thinks he knows what's best. ie #9.

11. I wish I had Ben's self control when it comes to food. He never over indulges. Sometimes we wish he'd want more than one cookie. Or another bite of brownie, but nope. He's perfectly content with the minimum. I can hand him a pint of rainbow sherbet and he'll bring it to me saying he's done after he's only about 1/6th of the way into it.

12. When Ben gets bored or tired it's not pretty. He wakes up most days around 6:45 and is banished to the living room to lay on the couch so I can sleep a little longer (since Shelby doesn't wake up till 8). If he wakes up any earlier than that I can pretty much count my day a loss because he's almost uncontrollable. He doesn't listen, he throws himself on the floor when he gets mad. He cries if I get upset with him, he's mean to Shelby and he flat out tones out the world and goes a bit loopy. It's so bizarre. If he wakes up after 7 he's usually great. 6:15, total devil.

13. He loves Phineas and Ferb and Fish Hooks on Disney and Wild Kratts on PBS. That's pretty much all we watch besides the occasional random PBS show or if Chuggington is on Disney. It's been kind of nice the past two days because he got two presents on Sunday at dinner at my mom's and he's been playing with them constantly. (A Polar Express electric train from my mom and a Snowtrooper Lego set from Nikki). We didn't even turn on the tv till after lunch time yesterday. That's a big deal in our house.

14. When Ben knows he did something wrong he gets REALLY upset. Like, I have to send him to his room and he'll cry sometimes for half an hour if he thinks I'm mad at him. Yesterday he got so frustrated with Shelby touching his new train he pushed her down and she started crying. I was painting the kitchen and ran in asked him what happened and he ran to his room, slammed the door and just cried. He said he didn't want to tell me what he did because he knew I'd be upset. And then he told me 'cause he knows if he doesn't he'll get in more trouble. It's nice he has a conscience, we're just working on managing his emotions.

15. Ben never forgets a prayer. And he likes to say really long, specific prayers and then when he's done he'll say "That was a good prayer, huh Mom?" Yes, yes it was.

16. He asked for a Book of Mormon for his birthday. I forgot he even wanted one. He got one from his Primary teacher on Sunday and he was SO excited.

17. He's really sensitive to his friends. He told me the other day that he wanted to do something nice for his friend Fynn. He thinks about Fynn a lot because they've been friends for so long and they're in the same class at church and Fynn is really shy. So he told me he wants to draw him a picture and mail it to him. And he always wants to write thank you notes to people who do nice things for him. He's already got Nikki and Grandma and his primary teacher on his list of people to make cards for. I've never once told him he needed to do that!

18. When he gets mad he whines and grunts at me. This makes me so mad sometimes. I always lose my patience once the whining and the grimaces come out.

19. He also gets really impatient when we go shopping. So I have to resort to rounds and rounds of "What's your favorite....?" and "I spy" otherwise it's not exactly the most pleasant shopping experience. Frankly, it's me that's the impatient one.

20. He loves playing Angry Birds on my phone.

21. He's the worst bargainer. If he's eating something he doesn't like and asks if he can be done, I usually say 3 more bites. Then he'll counter, "How about 7 more bites?" 7 it is!

22. Ben is a perfect angel when John is around. He wants to grow up and be strong like his dad. Today he asked me if he's stronger like his dad now that he's 5.

23. He has a lot of girl friends. All the kids in his preschool are girls besides him. The first girl he ever said he was going to marry was Emma Pool. Then it was Sarah. Then Cameron. Now I'm not sure who he's planning on marrying but I think it's hilarious!

Okay that's all I can really think of. If you read all of them thank you. :) We love Ben. He's a great big brother and is one heckuva cute kid. Here are some pics from the photo shoot I did for his birthday party invitation plus one from when we did bluebonnet pics (minus the bluebonnets!) Seriously, could he be anymore handsome?

Shelby is ONE!

2011-04-19T22:44:00.000-05:00

Don't even get me started on how crazy it is that our little baby girl is already a year old! It's crazy how fast the first months go, but we love her so much and she's more and more fun every day. Here are some stats/tidbits about our one-year-old!

1. She weighs 23.9lbs (75th)
2. She's 32" tall (off the chart)
3. Her head is small at 17-3/4" (25-50th)
4. She says go, mama, dada, bye bye, uh oh.
5. She signs milk, done, bye bye.
6. She's cruising but not walking.
7. She loves to sing If You're Happy and You Know It and do the motions with me and Ben (pat her tummy is her favorite).
8. She is in love with her dad.
9. She hates when Ben holds her. He thinks she loves it but oh man does she hate it.
10. Bath time is her most favorite thing in the whole world.
11. She loves books and points at pictures trying to mimic words.
12. She hates when I get her dressed. Whether in the morning or in her pjs she hates it!
13. She loves to dance.
14. She can jump up and down (while holding something) but still can't walk. I know she's just holding out on us (but honestly I don't mind).
15. Her favorite foods are beans, strawberries, goldfish, veggie chips, cheese and noodles.
16. She definitely has a sweet tooth. Almost immediately after we eat lunch or dinner she finds her way into the pantry and tries to pry open a bag of fruit snacks.
17. No I don't let her eat fruit snacks. I did let her eat a piece of a tootsie roll today but she prefers Smarties.
18. She tries to put shirts over her head and shoes on her feet.
19. She loves necklaces.
20. She is extremely happy almost 100% of the time. If she ever gets cranky I know she's either sick or exhausted. But those moments are few and far between.
21. She's just awesome.

I haven't taken her official 1-year pics yet but here's a couple from a little session I did with her and Ben the other day. I tried for bluebonnets but it was a fairly unsuccessful attempt!

I Love

2011-03-21T20:03:00.000-05:00

My newly rearranged rooms. Mine and the kids. They're much more open and spacious.

Sneaking up on Shelby from behind. She squeals and laughs every time.

A freshly made bed. In my newly rearranged room.

Cleaned and organized closets.

Boxes of stuff intended for storage. It might be taking up space in my corners and hallways now, but it means less clutter and hopes for a bigger house.

Crisp cool mornings.

Hugs from Ben. About a hundred a day.

Toothy grins.

Weddings. Especially temple weddings. Especially family temple weddings. Especially when those family members are my nieces. I love my nieces.

Picking outfits for Shelby's 1-year pics. In hopes I will actually take them.

Gray and yellow.

Blue and white.

Baby naps.

Walgreens brand diapers. They're cheap and they work.

A finished project. I have so many to finish. I am so behind on many things. I'm doing my best to cross them off my list one by one. Finding time is hard.

Time with my husband. His work is so busy we relish when he's home by 8.

CrimeReports.com. It's taken house hunting to a whole new level.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2011-02-23T09:29:00.000-06:00

It's been one of those weeks. One of those weeks you want to end as soon as humanly possible. One of those weeks where you think things are going great and then all of a sudden you're in the adversaries sights. And today is only Wednesday? Sigh.

Most of you know we've been wanting to put our condo on the market so we can buy a house. Well, we found out Monday that we are so close to pre-qualifying and we are so excited! This is going to mean a lot of work getting our place ready, but I've been doing one major thing every day to get things ready. So that's good. Great, in fact!

For some reason lately I've been really tired. John's been working long, hard hours on the commercial properties they have and I'm so proud of him. He works harder than anyone I know. These commercial properties mean he is making more money which is great for us. It comes with a price because he has to work some Saturdays and his days now are long and hard when usually it's the summertime that sucks. But we're all doing just fine, just quite a bit more tired. I think I have sympathetic exhaustion from him, I've just felt so sleep deprived lately! But two goods, right? Great we might get to buy a house soon, great John has more opportunities at work!

Cue Friday night. John was working late and I was trying to get everything cleaned up before he got home. And I needed to get his patches ironed and sewed onto his new work shirt. I didn't want to wake the kids up in the hallway by ironing there like I usually do so I brought the shirt out in the living room and was doing it on the floor because we don't own an ironing board because there's no real place to put it. Can you see where I'm going with this? I don't even know what was going through my head thinking it was a good idea to IRON ON THE CARPET. But I did. And I ironed John's brand new expensive work shirt to the carpet. I seriously did that. I peeled it off, tried to get the carpet fibers off his shirt while they were still hot, but to no avail. And the carpet. Oh, we have nice patch of melted carpet right smack dab in the middle of our living room floor. Thankfully we had plans to replace the carpet before we put it up for sale. I am SO smart.

Monday John came home and his phone wasn't working because he dropped it in a pool filter. He couldn't get the charge port to work so he couldn't charge it. We have a spare iPhone we use for parts but as he was taking his phone apart he cracked the screen. He got the charge port fixed and working and ordered a new screen on eBay (he's changed them before). It's just one thing after another!

The big doozy came yesterday afternoon. I'd been doing some work on the computer while Ben was playing Wii and Shelby was napping. I decided to get the dishes done since I always put off doing the dishes and I needed to wash bottles. I was unloading the dishwasher and Ben wanted to play Wii sports (he usually just plays Lego Star Wars or Lego Harry Potter). I made him stay as far away from the tv as possible but it didn't even cross my mind to have him put the wrist strap on the Wiimote. Ben had started to get a little carried away while playing bowling and as I was about to say something to him as I was unloading the dishwasher I heard a "thunk." Ben immediately turned to look at me. I looked at him. Then at the TV stand thinking that's where his remote had hit, but no. HE HIT THE TV. And the TV is complete toast. Think I'm kidding?

It's a sad, sad day in the Saunders house. At least we had a 32" in our bedroom we put out in the living room. Our big tv is now in my car to take to electronic recycling. I had a dream we turned it on this morning and it worked just fine, but it's not. I still can't believe he actually broke it. And we're seriously contemplating saving $$ now to get a tv sooner because this little tv looks so sad on our big, nice tv stand (that we got on markdown at Sams for $125!) and would not show very well in my opinion!

Ben, in the meantime, has had a hard lesson to learn. Yes, it was an accident and I should have made sure he had the wrist strap on. But we have to make sure he understands that it was a bad thing that happened, an expensive thing he broke and that he has to be responsible for it. So we decided that there's no more Wii for him until he can earn back the privilege by behaving himself, helping more around the house, that kind of thing. And we are even going to have him donate some (or all) of his money jar to help pay for a new tv. Think that's fair? I honestly think Ben's more upset he can't play Wii than he is about breaking the tv. He's only 4 so he really doesn't understand.

So, anyway, that's been our past 5 or 6 days. It's been so fun! But it could be a lot worse I know!

Day 19 - Something you miss

2011-02-22T14:52:00.001-06:00

My dad.

I think Shelby actually looks like him in this pic. Her goofy little faces and the way her eyes squint up just like his are (I know his glasses are dark).

Day 18 - Something you regret

2011-02-21T12:07:00.000-06:00

One thing I REALLY regret is that I don't take enough pictures of my kids. I was reading this post from Ashley Ann and it made me feel like the hugest, lamest lump of a photographer mom I could possibly be. I'm totally inspired by her to just SHOOT and not worry about quality, just get quantity or I will regret it even more in a few years. So that's my goal from this point on. To just take pics of my kids anytime. And to make an album a year of them. I think it's a fantastic idea and there's no reason I shouldn't do it!

Seriously, read her post. It'll make you feel like crap but it'll also make you want to take more pictures. Even if you're not a photographer, just do it!

Oh, and did you know Costoco members automatically get 20% off MyPublisher albums? I've never bought one there before, but I just might!

All About Shelby

2011-02-18T14:11:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure I was very good at recording where Ben was developmentally when he was a baby so I'll try and do that more with Shelby!

1. Shelby is 10 months old! Seriously! SERIOUSLY? Where does the time go??

2. She crawls, stands, cruises from object to object. She's not walking yet and perfectly happy with crawling, but I would expect she will walk around 11 months like Ben did (and Ben didn't crawl till he was almost 9 months old. Heck, he didn't even sit up till 8 months!)

3. She babbles constantly. My favorite thing is when she is crawling around the house to find me I can hear her going Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma till she finds me!

4. She thinks Ben is HILARIOUS. This is adorable, yet somewhat irritating because Ben does crazy antics to make her laugh and will not stop even if Shelby isn't laughing anymore.

5. She will have nothing to do with being spoon fed. She'll only eat something if she can pick it up and put it in her mouth herself. Ben was completely opposite. I couldn't get him to pick up a piece of food till he was 11 months old! Shelby will eat almost anything. Her favorites are potatoes, beans, carrots, cheese and noodles. Ben to this day won't eat beans or potatoes. She does NOT like bananas (my sister Ginny will be so proud).

6. After her bout with bronchitis she got in some bad habits of waking up 3 or 4 times a night hungry. We were dealing with it and trying to decide whether or not we should let her cry it out because her and Ben share a room. So one night last week she'd been fed, changed, given Ibuprofen for her teeth and gas drops and yet she still woke up screaming her head off around 11:30pm. I told John there was nothing else I could do for her except give her a bottle and put her back to sleep. So we let her cry. I think she cried for almost an hour (maybe longer) before she finally went back to sleep and we had Ben sleep on the couch. The next night she slept 100% through the night. There were a couple of other times where she woke up crying but for the most part she's done GREAT. And I can sleep all night again!

7. She takes two 2-hr naps a day. Or one 2-hr and one 1-1/2 hr. Either way it's great!

8. She wears 18 month tops and 12 month bottoms, just like Ben did. Long torso, short legs!

9. She will no longer let me put headbands on her. I'm so sad about this because she kind of had a signature look and people actually expected to see her in one all the time. But now she just pulls them off. I can't wait for her hair to grow in so I can just clip her flowers on! We may buzz her head like we did with Ben. I know, aren't we crazy!?

10. She still loves playing peekaboo. She'll use any object to do it, a book, blanket, shirt. My mom thinks it's funny when she puts books over her head to play peekaboo. I think it's so cute!

11. She has two teeth on bottom and two teeth on top. The top ones have taken FOREVER and the right front tooth kept going back into her gums and out again. Her incisors are on their way to coming in, too and I'm sure her canines are not far behind.

12. She screams a lot when she wants something. I'm trying to start doing sign language with her but so far she just stares at me!

13. She's starting to use objects for their intended purpose. Like she picks up Ben's hat and tries to put it on her head. She tries to drink out of the cups he leaves laying around and she takes shirts and holds them up to her body. It's so fun to see her making connections.

14. We went to the park for the first time yesterday since it's been SO COLD. Shelby is almost impossible to take to the park because she wants to eat everything she finds. So of course she tries to eat all of the mulch at the park. And spit up all over me. We'll try the baby swings next time, but I thought she still might be too small for those...

15. She likes to search for snacks in my purse. She always finds them (usually in a snack bag) and tries to eat through the bag.

16. She is poopy seriously like 5 times a day now. I blame it on the food she eats. See #5. I'm sure the beans have nothing to do with it.

17. Okay one more so I don't end with poop! When she laughs she inhales and exhales really dramatically. I will have to get this on video because it's hard to explain, but it's so cute. Her eyes also squint into tiny slits when she laughs or smiles big so her eyes disappear. She's SO CUTE!

Day 17 - Something you're looking forward to

2011-02-18T11:28:00.001-06:00

This may sound totally cheesy, but I'm looking forward to WEDDINGS this year! We have 3 more planned this year so far. My niece, Julie, is getting married in a month! Then we have two other weddings, one in April and one in July. In thinking about my business and where we want to go with it, I really think that shooting weddings is going to become the primary type of photography that we do. And then we will fit in portraits and families as we have room.

Here's my niece, Julie, and her fiancee, Tenok, from their engagement session in December.

Even though I always always always get a pit in my stomach and absolutely DREAD the thought of shooting a wedding the night before I am always so excited day of and during the event.

So I can honestly say right now I am really looking forward to these weddings we're doing, but don't ask me the night before because I might just pass out !

Day 16 - Dream House

2011-02-17T18:42:00.001-06:00

We want to buy a house this year. That's probably no secret. Whether or not that happens is still up in the air, dependent on us selling our condo, and the state of our 2010 tax return. So we're not going to get our hopes up just in case. BUT we are still constantly looking at schools and neighborhoods and working on getting our place ready to sell (which is slow due to John's long work hours due to the increase in commercial pool repairs their company is doing).

So one afternoon I was looking at houses for sale in Colorado Springs. John's always said he wants to retire in Colorado and running a fly fishing shop. I'm all for it if we can live in THIS HOUSE.

I mean, even putting aside the fact that it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's understudy, just look at it! I love everything about it. It has a gorgeous porch, views that are amazing and that reflect off the windows, huge windows, and the listing says all kinds of things I didn't have the patience to read or understand. But scroll all the way down on the LISTING for more pictures!

I just love it. At 1.7 million it is probably a steal! I mean seriously, how'd you like to stare at that view all day?

Does anyone have 1.7 million I can borrow?

Day 15 - Bible verse

2011-02-16T08:11:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty sure Book of Mormon verses apply here. I really love this scripture.

Ether 12:4
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

I posted on Facebook yesterday about Ben and how he is getting so good at reading. He gets shy when we read books together and usually wants me to finish them. But most of the Level 1 reader books (the kind like you can buy at Target that are Thomas or Star Wars or Disney ones) are easy enough for him to read on his own. Part of it is his familiarity with them but he's also getting really good at sounding out words. I'm SO proud of him! I was really trying to have him reading before he went to Kindergarten and he is well on his way!

So last night while we were reading scriptures (John wasn't home yet so we usually only read a few verses) Ben told me he wanted to read one, too. I was really happy he wanted to join in since most of the time we get aggravated because he won't sit still. So I helped him read one verse and he did great, especially since we were using my phone and it's hard to follow because it's so small!

Day 14 - A picture you love

2011-02-15T09:42:00.000-06:00

I posted about this one before, too. There are a few repeats in this 30-day thing. So instead of going that route I'll post about photography instead.

This picture is a recent favorite from a wedding we shot in January. John took it with his 80-200 f/2.8L lens. We bought this lens on eBay last year and it's a gem. It's over 20 years old and works like it's brand new. It's the predecessor to the newer 70-100 f/2.8L lenses (there have been two upgrades). I'm picturing this picture on a gallery wrap canvas in our new house sometime in the near future. Doesn't it just make you happy? Okay well it makes me happy!

Day 13 - Goals

2011-02-15T09:35:00.001-06:00

I blogged about this before (sorta). Our immediate goal is to get our condo in sellable shape. That entails tiling, recarpeting, hanging new blinds, doing something about our kitchen counter tops (previous owner burned some holes in them), finishing the guest bath, painting and clearing out all our clutter and putting it in storage. Not an easy task with two kids and a husband who works long hours, especially since we actually like to spend time together on the weekends!

Another goal of ours is to lose weight! We're doing a Biggest Loser competition with my family and we've done pretty well so far! John's down about 14, me around 9. I'm afraid that our valentine's dinner is going to impede any progress for me this week, but working out is on my list of goals to do at least 4 times a week!

Day 12 - What you believe

2011-02-15T09:20:00.000-06:00

What I believe can be found HERE.

I'm trying to catch up so I'll post a few today!!

Day 11 - Favorite TV shows

2011-02-11T12:12:00.000-06:00

These are my current favorite tv shows. Unfortunately for us, a lot of these come on Thursday nights so we feel an obligation to watch them all before we go to sleep. So that meant we were up till about 12:30am watching some of these! My absolute favs out of these are Big Bang Theory, So You Think You Can Dance and How I Met Your Mother.

1. CSI: Las Vegas

2. Big Bang Theory

3. How I Met Your Mother

4. So You Think You Can Dance

5. Phineas and Ferb

6. Say Yes to the Dress

7. The Mentalist

8. The Office

9. Chopped

10. Top Gear

11. Glee

Day 10 - Something you're afraid of

2011-02-09T09:20:00.000-06:00

ROACHES.

There is nothing in the world that scares the bejeezus out of me more than a roach. Or, heaven forbid, more than one roach!!

After my family moved out of the house I grew up in, it didn't sell. So my mom ended up renting it a few times and finally sold it. One of the renters happened to be filing through Section 8 but the lady was sweet and her kids were so charming my mom went for it anyway.

Long story short, it didn't end well. And the clean-up was from HELL. There I said it. Because MY hell is full of roaches and that's what this was!

John and I walked into the house one morning to help my mom with the clean up. She'd warned us there were lots of roaches. What she didn't tell us was that the walls were covered in tiny little baby roaches. Hundreds of thousands of tiny baby roaches. And you know when they say when you see one roach there are a hundred more you can't see? I don't even know if that was possible because I swear every single inch of the beautiful, wonderful two story home I spent my childhood in was invaded by those creepy, crawly, disgusting things.

I don't think I'll ever get over it.

The roaches fell in our hair. We cleaned up the dog crap all over the back yard. We painted over the filth on the walls that we did not even give thought to what it all could be. But we cleaned up the house. Because my childhood memories would be forever tainted if we hadn't.

A family from Africa lives there now. They are LDS and in my mom's ward. The father recently passed away from cancer.

I still hate roaches.

Day 9 - A picture of your friends

2011-02-08T22:18:00.001-06:00

Okay so I'll try and continue with the 30 Days 2.0!

I honestly don't take a lot of pictures with my friends. Or of myself, frankly. So I'll post this one of me and my BFF in the snow on February 4, 2011. Aren't we cute?

Plus I got a new set of actions recently and I love this black and white conversion!

Shelby's 9-month Stats

2011-02-01T08:18:00.001-06:00

I'll get back to the regularly scheduled 30-day posts one of these days, but for now here are Shelby's 9-month stats:

Height: 30-1/2" above 95th
Weight: 21.25lbs 70-90th
Head: 17 (and something inches) 50th

For comparison here are Ben's 9-month stats.

She's gone through a rough couple of months, meaning it's been a rough couple of months for us. She randomly started waking up during the night, waking up early, not taking good naps. She's getting in 4 front teeth so I attributed it to that. Then she came down with bronchitis and there was one night she only slept for MAYBE 3 hours. A week of breathing treatments and antibiotics later she's much better. But now she's back to waking up furiously hungry during the night. I don't know what's up. Growth spurt? The teeth still? All I know is I'm tired!! She woke up 4 times last night.... We're going to make Ben sleep on the couch for a few nights and see if we can get her to cry it out to get her sleeping through the night again. Major downfall of having them share a room!

I'll leave you with one picture!

Day 8 - A place you've traveled to

2011-01-29T10:33:00.003-06:00

I wanna go back.

Day 7 - Favorite movies

2011-01-28T08:15:00.002-06:00

10.

11.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This scene makes me cry every time. Well, the two times I've seen it. This scene isn't in the book, but it's eluded to and I think it's perfect. Sniff.

2. Casino Royale. Tell me you don't love Daniel Craig as James Bond.

3. The Bourne Ultimatum. All of them, actually. But this one in particular.

4. Fun With Dick and Jane. Please watch this movie. And tell me you don't laugh hysterically when they rob the guy with their voice alternators on.

5. Gladiator. Because Russell Crow doesn't make bad movies.

6. Home Alone. Every Thanksgiving.

7. Star Trek. It's just good. And Karl Urban is so frikkin funny!

8. The Little Princess. Sarah! SARAAAHHHHHHH!!!! Shoot it makes me cry every time. I am such a sucker for this movie.

9. Toy Story 3. Because I love Bonnie. Aren't you glad it was nominated for Best Picture?

10. Up. One of the best Pixar movies ever.

11. Jurassic Park. I'm still waiting on this one to come out on blu ray.

Day 6 - A picture of something that makes you happy

2011-01-27T11:45:00.000-06:00

New shoes. Especially when they were only $6.49!

And yes, this pair was too big so I had to take them back. Thankfully they had them one size down for the same price. I love Ross. I just have no idea what I'm going to wear these with!

P.S. My sheets make me happy, too.

Day 5 - Your siblings

2011-01-26T18:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, this is my entire immediate family. But it's the most recent pictures (as in January) of everyone. This doesn't happen very often that we're all together, but it worked out this time around! Thanks to everyone cooperating and making sure we were all there, even if it was only for about 30 minutes.

So there are 40 people in this picture. The sisters are numbered from oldest to youngest Ginny, Suzy, Mandie, Melinda and Missy. I was going to number off everyone else but decided that would be crazy. But I will name them!

My mom is obviously the person in the middle. She definitely takes rejoicing in your posterity to another level. :)

Ginny is married to Jared. She has five kids: CJ, Carrie, Julie, Chrystal and Gideon. CJ is married to Randi and they have two girls, Mary and Lisa, plus another one on the way (the little peanut brings the number to 40). Julie is engaged to Tenok. Chrystal is married to Jonathan and they have baby Cecily.

Suzy is married to Paul. They have three kids: Kenny, Tiffany and Kile. Kenny is married to Texas and they have one boy, Carson. Tiffany is married to Abe and they have two boys, Luke and Bryan. Kile is married to Damaris.

Mandie is married to Brian. They have three kids: Abby, Carter and Andrew.

Melinda is married to Danny. They also have three kids: Anna, Tommy and Eddie.

Missy is married to John (duh). We have two kids: Ben and Shelby.

So there you have it!

Day 4 - Your parents

2011-01-25T18:08:00.000-06:00

These are my parents, Bill and Shirley Fowkes at their wedding reception. Aren't they so cute? They were married on October 24 but I honestly can't remember the year. My dad was born in 1942 and my mom in 43. My dad grew up on a ranch in Evanston, Wyoming with two brothers and deaf parents. My mom grew up in East Texas and Fort Worth with a younger brother and sister. It was the church that brought them together. My mom played the piano and my dad sang, so, naturally my mom ended up accompanying him at some point and then my older two sisters (who have a different dad) told my mom he needed to come over more often. And that's how the story goes. The quiet, unassuming guy from Wyoming meets and marries the spunky, divorced blonde from Texas. It was quite the scandal, but I have to say the rest of us couldn't be happier.

Day 3 - Your first love

2011-01-24T09:59:00.000-06:00

I only had two real boyfriends before John (not including random guys in school) but I can't really say I loved either of them. Plus they were both jerks.

So I can honestly say that my first love was and will always be John.

Day 2 - Meaning behind your blog name

2011-01-23T15:07:00.000-06:00

Okay well my blog isn't named anything special. The Saunders Family. Woooooo.... Okay so I added the tag line "We live in a rainbow of chaos" because just using The Saunders Family seemed so boring. Anyway so this quote is by Paul Cezanne. I studied this artist extensively in college and I honestly can't remember much, but I am still really familiar with his paintings. In fact, I had one entire class where we painted gouache in his style. That was one of my favorite classes in college ever. Cezanne was a friend of Matisse and Picasso and you can see some similarities in their paintings. I always liked Cezanne because he had a strangely eerie sense to his paintings. All with a slightly dark side.

So a rainbow of chaos it is. I fee like our lives are constantly chaotic and I'd like to think that the rainbow at least mean there's a little bit of a bright side to all the crazy.

There you have it!

Day 1 - Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

2011-01-22T08:33:00.000-06:00

So here's a recent picture of me. It's the one on my Facebook, though it looks much cooler on my Facebook than on here. Especially since it is kind of an unflattering angle to my chin in it's full form. The Facebook hack I did (thanks to Kari) is much more flattering!

See what I mean?

Anyway. That's a recent picture!

Here's 15 boring facts (I know it says interesting, but come on, the first 5 may be okay but #11 is probably gonna bore you):

1. I turned 19 on November 19th in 1999.
2. My thumbs are different from each other. I call them fraternal twins.
3. I have an overly sensitive sense of smell. I think Ben has inherited this trait. It's especially annoying when we're out because if there is any kind of peculiar smell anywhere he announces at the top of his lungs, "MOM!! What is that SMELL?? Gross!!" He is also the first to smell the kid with the poopy diaper when we've got a bunch of cousins together. And he will come tell you who it is.
4. I have lost 8.2 pounds in 3 weeks. My family is doing a Biggest Loser competition. John's going to be mad at me for posting that (gives the other competitors motivation), but he's lost more than me so he should be proud, dang it!
5. We own two guns that are technically mine. A .22 Remington rifle that I inherited from my dad and a .22 handgun we bought from John's brother Mark. I haven't shot the rifle in over 3 years and have never shot the handgun. Though I really want to. John's actually at the gun range this morning with a friend from church. I'm not really that envious though because it was 33 degrees when he left this morning.
6. I hate any kind of chocolate with mint. No Andes, Yorks, mint brownies. Gross.
7. I love Phineas and Ferb.
8. I also love Cheddar Explosion Goldfish. Possibly why I only lost 0.6lbs this week!
9. I am extremely shy and can't normally have a very good conversation with people I don't know. Makes taking pictures interesting but I try to throw all inhibition aside when it comes to my business, especially at weddings! But don't tell me I don't feel awkward because, man, I feel like an idiot sometimes.
10. I'm the Beehive Advisor at church. That means I teach every Sunday but Fast and Fifth Sundays. That whole shy thing also had to be thrown out the window. The girls are shy enough for both of us!
11. I'm the youngest of 5 girls. So I'm the baby. I was treated like the baby and I acted (act) like the baby. It's awesome.
12. I have an issue with visible onion. If it's an onion and it's in my food and I can see it I won't eat it. If I can taste it prominently in my food I won't eat it. I once had a Subway sandwich that had ONE piece of onion on it (granted that onion smelled like it'd been exposed to the elements for a few days) but it ruined the sandwich for me. Happened once with a Sonic chicken sandwich, too. My mom has reverted to putting dehydrated onion in the dressing she makes on Thanksgiving because me and my nephew Kile (with the same visible onion issue) would pick all the pieces of onion out. Haha.
13. I've never had to use an eyelash curler.
14. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UTA, Graphic Design emphasis.
15. John and I were discussing our celebrity crushes after American Idol the other night. His has always been Catherine Zeta-Jones. Apparently it is also Jennifer Lopez. I realized I don't really have one anymore (I'm sorry Shia but I've moved on). So I need a new celebrity crush. Thoughts? Daniel Craig? Robert Downey Jr. (too cliche?) Ryan Reynolds? Hm...

I'm a bad blogger!

2011-01-21T17:48:00.001-06:00

, So much for the 30 days. What, it's been almost a week since I posted one? I was almost done!!

Here's a little summarization of the last ones:

Day 29 — Testimony
I'm just going to share with you this year's mutual theme. I believe 100% in the YW program. It's been a huge blessing in my life for the past 2 years and I know it helps the girls of our church. I think we can all strive for the good found in this year's theme:

13th Article of Faith:
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Day 30 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
We have a lot of hopes and dreams for this year. Hopes of buying a house. Getting on a strict budget and trying to make time to fix up our condo for listing. Dreams of building up our wedding business. I'll be spending lots of time concentration on client maintenance. I'm working on a new pricing structure and marketing and referral promotions. I also want to concentrate on Ben and Shelby as much as possible. Building their relationship since Ben starts school next year. Prepping Ben for Kindergarten and trying to get him transferred into the best school possible. I also want to take more pictures of my own kids!

It's a lot and the thought of everything we want to do this year overwhelms me! But I know if we want to be successful and if we want to grow our family then there are just things we have to do!

I'm also starting a new blog challenge. Won't you do this one with me, too? It's been so fun! There are some repeats and some new ones so let me know what you think!

Day 1 - Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Day 2 - Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3 - Your first love
Day 4 - Your parents
Day 5 - Your siblings
Day 6 - A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7 - Favorite movies
Day 8 - A place you've traveled to
Day 9 - A picture of your friends
Day 10 - Something you're afraid of
Day 11 - Favorite TV shows
Day 12 - What you believe
Day 13 - Goals
Day 14 - A picture you love
Day 15 - Bible verse
Day 16 - Dream House
Day 17 - Something you're looking forward to
Day 18 - Something you regret
Day 19 - Something you miss
Day 20 - Nicknames
Day 21 - Picture of yourself
Day 22 - Favorite city
Day 23 - Favorite vacation
Day 24 - Something you've learned
Day 25 - Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Day 26 - Picture of your family
Day 27 - Pets
Day 28 - Something that stresses you out
Day 29 - 3 wishes
Day 30 - A picture

Day 28 — A person I love

2011-01-14T08:44:00.000-06:00

I think this one is pretty obvious:

Day 27 — A place I love

2011-01-13T10:01:00.004-06:00

I remember loving San Francisco when we visited there when I was a kid. Then we went back for our honeymoon and it's awesome. I'd never want to live there, but visit there, definitely! I love this place.

Day 26 — A child I love

2011-01-12T09:36:00.000-06:00

This one is probably going to be pretty obvious, 'cause it has to be one of my kids. So I'll pick Shelby. Partly because I take FAR to few pictures of her. I spent some time in the past few days reading back on our blog since Ben was born and I took so many pictures of Ben (though many of them are lost between here and there and different computers and hard drives) and was way more detailed in his life and the challenges we had with him. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The first few years of Ben's life were a real challenge and trial for us. I look back at all that happened and we are SO blessed in our life now and the things we have and the ability I have to stay home. I always wonder if those times and trials were really just Heavenly Father's way of telling us that if we had enough faith for me to stay home with our kids he would bless us.

So anyway, back to the child I love! Shelby is an amazing little baby. She's almost 9 months old and incredibly independent. She pulls up on everything, spends most of her days exploring our house and playing with Ben. They can seriously entertain each other in their bedroom for half an hour or more before Shelby falls down and bonks her head or Ben tries to smother her. It's really more than I could ever ask for. She's still a handful, crawling everywhere and eating anything she can find, but she's incredibly alert and aware of what's going on around her. I just love her. She's skeptical before she smiles, she pulls up on everything to get a better view, she stands up in her crib and talks to Ben at night when they're supposed to be going to sleep, and she's eased up a little on the screaming. She's just awesome.

This is Shelby standing up in her crib. We dropped it all the way down to it's lowest point once she started pulling up on it. I have a feeling she will be the kind of kid that will learn to crawl out of her crib. Ben never did, and we switched his crib to a toddler bed before he really had the chance.

On another note, part of the reason why I don't take very many pictures is because 1. I spend a lot of my time editing other people's pictures and find it hard to edit my own and 2. Our house is the worst house for picture taking, dark, small, etc. We recently purchased a flash to use at weddings (since our cameras do not have built in flashes) and it makes picture taking in our house so much easier. I could use the point and shoot but the pics with my camera just look so much better. So hopefully this will encourage me to take more pictures!

Day 25 — A funny (true) story

2011-01-11T10:32:00.000-06:00

Last Christmas (2009) was the first time we'd let Ben watch Home Alone. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies and it's tradition that we watch it every Thanksgiving. But it has some bad words and before that we didn't really think he should watch it. I knew he would love it. I mean, what kid doesn't love to see people falling down and hurting themselves?

So of course he loved it. And naturally we watched it over and over and over again.

About a week before Christmas we were in the car heading home from the store. Ben hollers at me from the back seat.

"Mom!"
"What?"
"Just leave it on the doorstep and get the hell outta here!"

I paused for a minute because I was trying to keep myself from laughing uncontrollably. Of all the things he could have picked up from that movie! It was so funny, but so so wrong. I didn't even acknowledge what he said and he never said it again. We only watched Home Alone maybe one more time that Christmas!

Day 24 — Something that makes you feel better...

2011-01-10T08:27:00.000-06:00

This is kind of an ambiguous question. Something that makes me feel better when I'm sad? When I'm sick? Tired?

What can almost always make me feel better no matter what circumstance is laying in a freshly made warm bed. Warm usually means John's in bed with me 'cause he's always warm.

I could REALLY use some more of my warm bed this morning. John left for work early, I couldn't go back to sleep, Ben woke up early, my house is a disaster, I have to get to the camera store early this morning to return rentals, pick up other rentals for a newborn shoot this afternoon and I'm SO not ready to face the day!

Day 23 — A travel story

2011-01-08T08:31:00.001-06:00

When John and I were making wedding plans the idea of a honeymoon never really crossed our minds because we didn't have a lot of money. We toyed with the idea of just getting a hotel room locally and staying a few days. We honestly didn't put much thought into it.

Then I was on a travel website checking the price for flights to different areas just in case something came up cheap enough. Like a cheap ticket to somewhere in Texas, but I always checked airfare to San Francisco and San Jose (the cheaper alternative to flying into San Fran). Then one day there was a huge fare sale and they had round trip tickets to San Jose for $179. So after some checking on hotel prices and car rentals we decided to just go for it. I was SO excited!

We booked the 7pm flight so we could get everything ready and leave our car at my mom's and she was going to take us to the airport. We made sure with the car rental company that they would be open since our plan was going to get in so late. Everything was good. So the Sunday after we got married we headed to my mom's around 3 or 4 and around 5pm before we were planning on leaving for the airport, I was pulling up our gate information online to make sure we knew where we were supposed to go. I was mortified to see that our flight had actually left at 7am that morning. I had booked the wrong flight.

My heart sank into my stomach.

I immediately teared up, told John what I had done and started crying. I thought for sure I had just cost us all that money and that we weren't going to get to go on a honeymoon. My mom suggested I call the airline to see if there was anything they could do. Fortunately there was indeed a flight leaving at 7pm and there were seats open so the woman I spoke to said for us to get to the airport asap and they would honor that flight for us. And it wouldn't cost us a cent!

Unfortunately though, the lady at the counter at the airport was less than willing to be as accommodating. She gave me the run around and told me it would cost $150 to change our tickets. I pleaded with her that it was our honeymoon and I had just spoken to someone who said it would not cost us and there were seats open. She said they did have seats open but the rest of the way we would have to fly standby since our itinerary was completely deleted after not showing up for the 7am flight.

But at least we got on a plane to San Jose!

We had a stop over in Denver and had to check in at the counter there to make sure we could get seats on the next flight. The guy at that counter was so nice and said that every flight we were originally scheduled on had seats open and we wouldn't have to fly standby. He fixed our tickets on real seats and we were set for the rest of our trip.

I was so relieved when we finally landed in San Jose. It was after 11:30pm and we still had to get our car rental. We took the shuttle to the rental place and every single car rental company was closed except for one (I can't even remember the name of it). But Enterprise, who we had booked through, was completely vacant. John immediately called them and complained and cancelled our reservation because they had promised they would still be open. Then we (and about 5 other people in the same situation) booked a car rental for over $100 more and were on our way. FINALLY.

Driving form San Jose to San Fan takes about an hour, but it was the most beautiful drive I've ever taken. Going across the Bay Bridge then into the city, which is beautifully lit at night because of all of the hills was just awesome. We had a fantastic time. Ate lots of In-n-Out burger. Got a free dinner and Bay cruise for going to one of those real estate investment things. Spent a lot of time driving around the coast and through the city. We really want to go back again. John's nephew is serving in the San Jose mission now and we really hope to be able to go pick him up and take the kids for a few days.

I think I'll just be better about making sure I book the right flight this time.

Day 22 — A favorite Youtube video

2011-01-07T08:28:00.000-06:00

This is a hard one because there is never a shortage of YouTube videos. So I'll just post one that I've always loved. Kind of a culmination of all of the YouTube randomness!

By the way, I really hate how a lot of them have advertisements in front of the videos now. Major YouTube fail!

Day 21 — Nicknames I have, and why I have them...

2011-01-06T07:52:00.008-06:00

Missy - This is the obvious one. My real name is Melissa Ruth Saunders. I've been Missy every since I can remember. I'm not sure who started calling me Missy first but I know my dad called me Melissa forever and even wrote Melissa in his journal and planner about me. There were lots of Melissa's in my Kindergarten class so I was always Missy in school. One of those Melissa's graduated with me and once told me her family always called her Missy until she got into Kindergarten and she was Melissa in school and has been since even with her family.

BB - This is what John calls me (and what I call him). It started as baby and then we'd text bb back and forth when we were dating and it stuck. Nevermind that Perez Hilton freak who uses bb for baby on his blog. We were using it LONG before he even knew what a blog was.

MissyRuth - Various people call me this. From a few friends of mine, to some family members, to my boss in college at The Shorthorn. It's my Etsy name and I almost went with Missy Ruth Photography.

Stinky - This is what my sister Melinda calls me. I have no idea why. I mean, we call her Linna and I get Stinky? She even had the audacity to apply for some free Dove samples in my name. That name being Missy Stinkyhead. Thanks, Melinda!

MissyHead - This is what my sister Mandie calls me. So I call her MandieButt. Because we can!

Missalissa - This is what my Mom calls me sometimes. So I call her Mammallama. :)

Day 20 — A favorite recipe

2011-01-05T08:34:00.000-06:00

I'm a big fan of my mom's roast beef. In fact, it's the thing I want most when I'm sick, and it's usually always the thing I request on my Sunday birthday dinner.

I've never actually made my mom's roast beef, but I do make my own slow cooker version that is pretty awesome on its own. It's completely different, but REALLY easy and super delicious! You should try it some time!

Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Day 19 — A hobby of mine

2011-01-04T17:19:00.000-06:00

I guess I don't really have many hobbies. I do photography but that's more of a job than a hobby. So if I was going to say I had any kind of hobby I'd say I didn't. Because a hobby is something you do in your leisure time and leisure time is a lucrative commodity in this house!

If I had more time I'd want to travel more, maybe have a garden, photograph more things that are important to me (not just shooting clients), spend more time one on one with John. And we'd probably go shooting more (and by shooting I mean guns, not photography).

Day 18 — Put your iPod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up

2011-01-03T08:56:00.000-06:00

I actually really like doing this. It's kind of a fun perspective of someone through the kind of music they listen to. I'm actually looking forward to see what the other people I know doing this 30 day thing put for this one!

1. Everyone is in on it - Love Is Chemicals
2. Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90: III. Poco Allegretto - Brahams
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra
4. Someday You Will Be Loved - Death Cab For Cutie
5. God Put a Smile on Your Face - Coldplay
6. Landed - Ben Folds
7. Glass Full of Water - Coldplay (Live)
8. Heart Songs - Weezer (one of my favorite Weezer songs ever)
9. Give Up the Funk - Glee
10. Malaguena - DCI Madison Scouts 1995

Day 17 — A habit you wish you didn't have

2011-01-02T20:07:00.000-06:00

I have a habit of assuming the worst. I think this is different than being pessimistic because I don't think I'm a pessimistic person. But I do assume the worst of people sometimes and don't always give people a chance when I should. And then there are other times when I'm overly confident and someone doesn't follow through on something they were supposed to or something like that. And then I usually assume the worst about that person! It's awful and John only recently pointed this out about me and I guess I never really realized.

I guess I'll add giving people the benefit of the doubt to my list of goals for 2011...

Day 16 — A photo of my family

2011-01-01T13:55:00.000-06:00

This is me and my dad in Durango, Colorado (and Mandie in the background). I've always LOVED this picture. We went to Purgatory Ski Resort a few summers in a row for my dad's job (he was the area PFR guy and handled building inspections for the church). We're on the ski lift to ride down the Alpine Slide. It's SO fun. I think I was 8 or 9 in this picture. I really want to go to back there sometime. They've completely remodeled Purgatory into Durango Mountain Resort. It's also just at the top of the mountain from Silverton that has a running steam engine (and we know how Ben feels about trains!)

Anyway. This picture reminds me of all the fun we had those summers. Seriously awesome.

Day 15 — Next 3 on “Bucket List”

2010-12-31T12:06:00.000-06:00

1. Go to Europe for my and John's 10-year-anniversary. Or maybe or 12-year? I went with my sisters when I was 19 and LOVED it. I know John would love it, too. I'd definitely include Ireland or Scotland on our tour list and maybe Italy or Switzerland. Super ambitious I know!
2. Have another kid or two. We need a new house for that, too. But I didn't put buy a new house on the list because I've talked about that one too many times already!
3. Watch General Conference live in the Conference Center. I've always wanted to do this. Maybe someday we will get to!

Day 14 — Your dream house...

2010-12-29T13:48:00.000-06:00

This is a hard one because my dream house would entail a ton of things. But honestly, I'd really just love a HOUSE. I'm not too picky. Just 4 bedrooms, about 2,000 sq ft, two living areas, big backyard, preferably a pool (hey I'm married to a pool man, having a pool just goes without saying). I'd be perfectly happy.

We're really wanted a bigger house for a long time (we're working in it!) but then I saw this line of home accessories at Target yesterday and about fell on the floor. I love it. Unfortunately I can't find it online. Ah well.

I get a lot of room inspiration ideas from Stephmodo. Especially this post about rugs. I can't tell you how much I want the yellow moroccan rug!

Anyway. That's about it. Any house will do! Just something bigger than 1,025 sq ft please!

Day 13 — What did you do today??

2010-12-28T22:55:00.001-06:00

7:15am - John wakes me up to kiss me good bye.
7:30am - Ben wakes up and I tell him to go in the living room and lay on the couch. I'm SO tired.
7:45am - Ben comes in to tell me he's hungry.
7:50am - I get up and get Ben some Scooby Snacks (cinnamon graham crackers shaped like dog biscuits).
8:00am - I eat some Scooby Snacks. Turn on cartoons.
8:25am - Call Shelby's Dr., not open yet.
8:30am - Get on internet and look at FB.
8:45am - Call Shelby's Dr., make appointment for 1:45.
8:50am - Make bottle and wake Shelby up and feed her.
9:15am - Change Shelby's diaper and clothes.
9:20am - Start another load of laundry to clean all of Ben's blankets that Shelby threw up on last night.
9:30am - Start Ben's bath.
9:40am - Started writing this.
9:50am - Got Ben out of bath and dressed.
10:00am - Shelby down for a nap.
10:10am - Ben gets to play Wii.
10:15am - I start working on disc covers I need to create and order.
11:17am - I put in an order for 2 disc cases and 2 covers. I have 3 more to order but I'll do those later. I need to shower before Shelby wakes up.
11:30am - I finally get in the shower/makeup/hair done/brush teeth. Realize I forgot to put my puked on jeans in the wash last night. Make mental note to wash them later.
12:00noon - Make Ben and Shelby's lunch.
12:05pm - Ben sits down to eat lunch, I wake up Shelby and feed her.
12:25pm - Diaper change/Shoes/coats/everything for Shelby and head out the door to Target.
12:45pm - Get to Target for formula/peanut butter/bread/bag for a present/soda for me. Check out mark down Christmas stuff. Got the Cadbury Christmas candy. Mmmm.
1:25pm - Get in long line at Target.
1:30pm - Leave Target (late) for 1:45 dr appointment only to realize I left Shelby's new insurance card at home.
1:30pm - Call dr to tell them I'll be late and head home to get card.
1:45pm - Lanes closed on Center St. gonna be really late to dr.
1:55pm - Finally leave home for dr appointment.
2:00pm - Realize I never ate lunch and open the Cabury chocolate I got at Target.
2:10pm - Get to dr. and wait.
2:25pm - See the nurse.
2:45pm - See the dr. Shelby's fine, just feed her a light diet of toast/formula/pedialyte/rice for a few days till her stomach is better.
3:05pm - Leave dr and head home.
3:25pm - Get home and sit in parking lot for a minute talking to my mom on the phone. She's at Kohl's buying clothes for the kids.
3:30pm - Feed Shelby, change her diaper.
3:40pm - Write more of this while Ben is watching Despicable Me, Shelby crawling everywhere. Check email, see my disc covers order already shipped!
4:00pm - Shelby down for a nap, 15-minute pick-up.
4:15pm - Write an email/call my sister about Sunday dinner/baby blessing but she doesn't answer so I make Ben some chocolate milk and look at FB/blogs for a while.
4:25pm - Throw away the unwrapped Reese's peanut butter cup Ben was holding while he was going #2 in the bathroom before he has a chance to eat it.
4:30pm - Get a text from John that he's heading home. YAY!
4:35pm - Try and locate my On the Border gift card I have so we can go out to dinner. Hoping Shelby is not super cranky when she wakes up so we can go.
4:45pm - Watch movie with Ben.
5:00pm - John gets home. I make Shelby some cereal and a bottle.
5:05pm - John wakes Shelby up. She's not interested in eating, just wants to play.
5:30pm - We decide on Chipotle for dinner and I head out to pick it up.
5:50pm - Dinner! Shelby is finally interested in her bottle.
6:05pm - Watching Casino Royale on SciFy? Or was it AMC? I can't remember.
6:15pm - Switch to Meteorite Men when the not child safe parts of Casino Royale come on. Ben's playing in his room, I'm playing with Shelby, John's watching tv.
7:00pm - I get Shelby's pajamas on and diaper changed.
7:15pm - Make Ben's bed from all his washed blankets that Shelby puked on last night. Shelby plays in her crib while Ben helps me. One blanket still smells like puke. I put it back in the wash. I realize now I still haven't washed those jeans...
7:35pm - Pajamas for Ben. And a juice box.
7:45pm - Ben gets the 10 minutes till bed warning and we do 5 minute pick up. John lowers Shelby's crib while we clean up because she stands up in it now. It's as far down as it will go now and she's not sure what to think of it.
8:00pm - Bedtime/prayers. Shelby didn't puke today. This is a vast improvement over yesterday.
8:05pm - Both kids in bed. Neither wants to go to bed.
8:10pm - I feed Shelby the rest of the bottle she didn't finish. Get Ben a little water. Threaten him if he keeps Shelby awake.
8:20pm - Go to put Shelby's pacifier back in. Ben's laying all wonky in his bed. More threats.
8:30pm - They're both asleep. I'm watching What Not to Wear. John's playing Call of Duty. Playing Words With Friends.
9:25pm - John's finished playing so we come watch Dirty Jobs. I'm cold. Losing at most of my WWF games.
9:45pm - Make popcorn. Eat popcorn.
10:15pm - John's trying to figure out why internet won't attach documents.
10:45pm - Give up.
10:53pm - Finishing Back to the Future III then going to bed!

Day 12 — A favorite quote

2010-12-27T09:50:00.001-06:00

Oh I'm so behind on this! How many days did I forget to post? 2? 3? Oh I have no idea.

Starting back today though! Shelby has had a bad stomach virus the past couple of days and is finally napping this morning. No puke this morning but she's still running a slight fever. I am honestly praying the rest of us don't get it because we have to shoot a wedding on Thursday!

So a favorite quote! I'll use one I used in one of my Young Women's lessons recently. I think this is as great quote for a new year.

"My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life, we ‘accentuate the positive.’ I am asking that we look a little deeper for good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort."
—Gordon B. Hinckley

Day 11 — A favorite book

2010-12-24T12:35:00.000-06:00

This is easy for me. The only books I've read in a long time have been the Harry Potter books. I did read the Hunger Games series but those were pretty disturbing.

Anyway. My favorite book out of all 7 HP books is probably #3. We listened to it on our way to south Texas over Thanksgiving and thankfully we finished the entire thing. I love that book so much. I hate the 3rd movie because it leaves out my most favorite parts of the book. I still have some issues with the story line but it's always been one of my favorites! 2nd place goes to either book 4 or 7.

Day 10 — A favorite food

2010-12-23T12:35:00.000-06:00

I'd have to say that one of my most favorite things in the entire world to eat is fajitas. And especially fajitas from On the Border or Pappasito's. At Pappasito's it has to steak. See, I used to always get chicken fajitas and the usual toppings. I hated sour cream and guacamole. Hated. Then when I was pregnant with Shelby I craved sour cream and guacamole for some reason and now I love the stuff! Especially on fajitas. And now I almost always get steak fajitas or a combo of steak and chicken. It's just good stuff. Go to Pappasito's and order the steak fajitas you will not be disappointed!

Day 09 — A favorite movie

2010-12-22T11:59:00.001-06:00

This is a hard one because we own a ton of movies and we watch a ton of movies. So I really don't have a "favorite" so to speak and it's really hard to narrow it down to just ONE, or even a few. I'll just list a few!

The Bond movies with Daniel Craig. Love them.
Up. This movie still makes me cry.
The Little Princess. If you haven't seen the modern version of this movie you have to. It makes grown men cry!
Fun With Dick and Jane. I think this movie is so underrated. It's absolutely hilarious.
The Illusionist. It's creepy and beautiful.
Gladiator. I've only seen it on tv but I still love it (it's rated R). John actually bought the blu ray a few months ago but we've never opened it.
The Bourne Trilogy. I'm kind of annoyed they're making a 4th. It ended so well.
Toy Story 1, 2 & 3. Do I even have to explain?
How to Train Your Dragon. I LOVED this movie, though I'm not typically a Dreamworks fan (even though my cousin works for them). This one is great. Hiccup's voice starts to annoy me though if we watch it too many times in a row.
Star Trek. The new one. It's awesome.

What are your favorites?

Day 08 — A favorite song

2010-12-21T08:23:00.000-06:00

It's no secret that I LOVE Coldplay. I could put 20 songs on here by them that I absolutely love. But instead I'll just post one of my absolute favorites. Plus the video is awesome. Enjoy!

(it won't let me embed so here's the link)

Day 07 — Something I want to buy

2010-12-20T08:05:00.000-06:00

This is easy... A HOUSE. We knew after we had Shelby things would be a little tight in our 1,100 sq ft condo and we drastically underestimated how much more laundry and overall clutter would surface with just one more small body in the house. So, yes, we need a house. And soon!!

Day 06 — Something I bought recently

2010-12-20T08:04:00.000-06:00

Okay so I forgot to post yesterday! So I'll do two today. :)

Something I bought recently is a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro (non USM). I LOVE this lens. I sometimes I forget I have another lens other than my 50mm because that's my bread and butter but when I use the 100mm I always say I need to use it more often. It gives me a different perspective with portraits and works great as a standard macro.

John took this picture with it of the new watch he bought me for Christmas. Yes, I walked in the bedroom and it was laying on the bed in full view. So I got it early! :)

Day 05 — Top 10 pet peeves

2010-12-18T10:28:00.000-06:00

This is a hard one! I have a ton of pet peeves but I can't even think of them when I'm supposed to make a friggin list!

1. Using the word uber. What does uber even mean? It's like someone's fancy version of super. Just use super!

2. When people speed up to get around you then immediately slow down. This infuriates us to no end on road trips.

3. Parents who bring small kids to movies not made for small kids. Especially rated R movies. You know parents do it. Why the heck??

4. When Ben stands at my shoulder while I'm on the computer breathing on my neck and pulling my chair back. Oh man that drives me absolutely insane.

5. When something we love suddenly becomes popular. Like Coldplay or the Rangers.

6. Chewing with your mouth open. Ben does this sometimes and oh man it makes me crazy!

7. PeOpLe WhO tYpE LiKe ThIs.

8. When you order something at a drive thru and they screw it up and you don't realize it till your home. Like the time I ordered a chicken sandwich at McD's and they gave me a fish sandwich. In what universe is that the same thing?

9. People who cuss in public with no thought of who's around them. I was at Target once and someone was on the phone saying the f-word over and over. And you know people talk louder when they're on the phone. So it was loud enough for Ben to hear and understand. Watch your mouth in public people!

10. People who don't put their kids in car seats. I almost called 911 on a lady once when I was at Walmart (no surprise there) and she was driving a car full of kids. There was one older kid in the back seat with 5 small kids. None of them were in car seats or wearing seat belts and one kid was crawling up to the front seat. Really people? You can't keep your kids safe in a car seat? Can't afford a bigger car to fit all of the car seats? Then don't have so many dang kids!!

Day 04 — Something I crave

2010-12-17T07:37:00.003-06:00

Carbs. All I can really say. :)

Day 03 — A favorite photo

2010-12-16T09:08:00.008-06:00

This is a picture from Thanksgiving 2010 of Ben and his 6-year-old cousin, Helen. We're so lucky that Ben is really great around other kids. He never meets a kid that isn't instantly his friend. He loves everyone he meets. He wants them to be his friend. He wants them to feel included. It's awesome. So Helen is no exception, but they do have a great cousin relationship.

The reason why I love this picture so much is because they're so young and innocent (they're sword fighting with palm leaves). They weren't aware of the real reasons we were in San Benito. They don't understand that John's dad has cancer and that his mom's health is extremely fragile. All they knew is that they were there with their family and they were having a great time. That's how they'll always remember that trip and I am totally okay with that.

Day 02— A picture of you last year and now and how you have changed since then

2010-12-15T08:31:00.004-06:00

This is a picture of me and Ben on our Austin trip in September 2009. I was about 9 weeks pregnant with Shelby in this picture and probably weighed the same as I do right now. We had a great time on that trip. We've since stayed in a hotel with two kids and doing it with just one is so much easier! But we wouldn't trade Shelby for the world. I'm much more tired this year, a whole heck of a lot busier and anticipating what's going to come this year almost as much as I was anticipating Shelby's arrival (though in this picture we didn't know what we were having yet, obviously.)

Day 01 — 5 things about you that no one really knows

2010-12-14T08:17:00.000-06:00

1. I LOVE tomatoes. I seriously think God invented sunburst tomatoes (the delicious little yellow ones) just for me. Love love love them.
2. I was a drummer in high school. Some people know this about me. Some don't. So it works. I was pretty good. Was drum captain for 3 years. Good times.
3. I broke my arm falling off the monkey bars when I was 9. They put it in a short cast and it wasn't healing correctly so I had to have surgery to re-break it. I was in a cast for almost 6 months. I still have two of my casts.
4. I'm not a baby person. I love my kids the older and older they get. But I don't gush over my babies, or other people's babies. So don't be offended if I don't gush over yours. Give me about 6-9 months and I'll think your kids the coolest thing on the planet.
5. I once took a couple of road reflectors (the ones that are adhered to the ground) from off the ground in a Winn Dixie parking lot. They were loose and I thought they were cool. The security guard saw me and threatened to arrest me. I was 17.

30 Days, 30 Posts

2010-12-14T00:02:00.000-06:00

My friend Kari is doing this blog post thing where you post once a day for 30 days with a different subject for each post. I figured I'm the worst blogger ever, no one probably reads this anymore anyway, and I need to get back in the habit so I'm going to do it, too! Who wants to do this with me?

Here's the list. Oh, and I'm starting tomorrow. You know you wanna do it!

Day 01 — 5 things about you that no one really knows
Day 02— A picture of you last year and now and how you have changed since then
Day 03 — A favorite photo
Day 04 — Something I crave
Day 05 — Top 10 pet peeves
Day 06 — Something I bought recently
Day 07 — Something I want to buy
Day 08 — A favorite song
Day 09 — A favorite movie
Day 10 — A favorite food
Day 11 — A favorite book
Day 12 — A favorite quote
Day 13 — What did you do today??
Day 14 — Your dream house...
Day 15 — Next 3 on “Bucket List”
Day 16 — A photo of my family
Day 17 — A habit you wish you didn't have
Day 18 — Put your iPod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up
Day 19 — A hobby of mine
Day 20 — A favorite recipe
Day 21 — Nicknames I have, and why I have them...
Day 22 — A favorite Youtube video
Day 23 — A travel story
Day 24 — Something that makes you feel better...
Day 25 — A funny (true) story
Day 26 — A child I love
Day 27 — A place I love
Day 28 — A person I love
Day 29 — Testimony
Day 30 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

Documentation

2010-12-02T17:35:00.001-06:00

Busy season + photographer + Christmas + 2 kids + home improvement = NO TIME!!

I've neglected my blog. But I really need to document a few of Shelby's milestones here for fear of never writing them down and forgetting them completely!

Shelby started sitting up a few weeks ago, right at about 7 months. Then BAM a week ago she started crawling!

She got her first two teeth on bottom. Both within a week's time of each other. She is now back to her awesome sleeping self. MAN this girl is a good sleeper!

I've starting paring her down to 2 naps (she's been taking 3 a day!) So now she takes 2 almost 2-hour naps a day. It's AWESOME.

Ben, on the other hand keeps growing and growing. He's grown an inch and a half since September! We still haven't cut his hair either. It's looking pretty awesomely bad!

He also saw his first naked Barbie today while playing at a friends' house. He was completely enthralled by this naked barbie! Oh boy....

So how are you guys doing?

Bragging on my babies

2010-11-04T18:37:00.003-05:00

Since they're all I really blog about anymore I though I'd give you a few little updates on Ben and Shelby.

BEN
1. Still hasn't gotten a hair cut since Shelby was born. It's getting REALLLY long. We weren't planning on cutting it till after Halloween because of what he wanted to be.
2. Broke the screen on our front door yesterday from running into it (after I told him three times not to touch the door). It might have been funny if I wasn't so mad.
3. Was absolutely THE BEST Harry Potter for Halloween this year. He LOVES dressing up. I have a feeling Halloween will be one of our more elaborate holidays because of him.
4. Can count to 100.
5. Can count to 100 by 10s.
6. Finally sleeps till 7:30am every morning. This is a vast improvement from the 5:30-6:30 he was doing for a few months!
7. Has a hard time listening to Mommy. I think his awesome superiority complex is hindering his ability to listen and obey (see #2).
8. Loves the Rangers. Wears his Rangers hat every single day.
9. Calls the Yankees the Stankees.
10. Can read quite a few words and spell words in rhyming sequences (big, dig, rig, cat, hat, mat).

SHELBY
1. Can ALMOST sit up independently. Ben didn't sit up till almost 8 months!
2. She can go from back to knees and hands pretty quickly, but still tips over when she's sitting upright for an extended period of time.
3. She's a consistent napper and sleeps best in her own bed. Great when we're at home, not so great when we're out (or at a babysitter).
4. Is eating baby food, but still prefers rice cereal over any other fruit or vegetable (exactly how Ben was).
5. Talks ALL the time. Ma ma ma ma, da da da da, ba ba ba ba, ga ga ga ga. Ga ga is my favorite. She LOVES when you mimic her!
6. Has no teeth.
7. Has the chunkiest thighs I have seen in my entire life. And I've seen some chunky thighs!
8. Was a pink skeleton baby for Halloween but I didn't get a very good picture of her. I want to take a new picture of her in her costume but I'm afraid it won't fit her since I already washed it.
9. LOVES John. Like has no eyes for me when he's home. I honestly don't mind!
10. She loves to play peekaboo. I'll find her wrapped in her play mat waiting for me to peekaboo. And if she finds a burp rag or one of her shirts on the floor she'll immediately grab it and put it over her face. I really don't know if she does it on purpose but she get SO excited when you find her!

Here's a pic of Ben as the best Harry Potter ever!